Investors seek Greenspan guidance

DATA on US consumption, consumer confidence and goods orders, and a speech by Alan Greenspan on the urgent topic of corporate governance, will give Wall Street investors plenty to chew over this week.

The Federal Reserve chairman speaks in New York on Tuesday and his comments could carry great weight in the debate over how to restructure the accounting industry and pin chief executives to a higher standard of corporate accountability.

Lawmakers have put forward dozens of remedies in response to the accounting scandal at failed energy company Enron and if Greenspan pushes hard for the need to restore confidence in the quality of corporate governance, it would help politicians to forge a consensus.

Morgan Stanley, one of the largest full-service brokers, is tomorrow expected to post first quarter profits of 69 cents a share, against 94 cents a year ago.

Also tomorrow, durable goods orders for February are forecast to show a 1% rise, a modest help to the depressed factory sector. Better news should come in the form of consumer confidence figures for March, expected to rise to 96.9, from 94.1 and moving closer to the 100 mark considered a sign of economic vitality.

On Friday, personal income for February is expected to rise a modest 0.2% but being outpaced by personal consumption, up 0.5%.

Data supplied by Thomson Global Markets