February 21, 2010: Big Data Week
February 21st, 2010
We get two significant reports this week that could have a dramatic impact on market psychology. The first one is the FDIC’s Q4 Quarterly Banking Profile which is scheduled to be released on or about February 24 (approximately fifty-five days after the previous quarter’s end). As of the end of Q3, there were 552 “problem” banks with assets of $345.9 Billion. These figures were up 32.7% and 15.4%, respectively, from the end of Q2 and were at the highest levels since Q4 1993, according to the FDIC.
The second focus report this week is Preliminary Q4 GDP (second of three estimates) which comes out Friday. Consensus estimate expects +5.7% which is where Advanced Q4 GDP came in on January 29. An interesting footnote is that both Preliminary and Final Q3 GDP came in progressively weaker than the Advanced estimate.
As has been the case for the better part of the past twelve months, expectations are very high that these reports will show continued recovery and stability.
We’ll see.
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