Previewing Today's Economic Reports

Today's economic data is chocked full of important data, with the producer price index (

) and jobless claims for the week ending January 8. Initial claims are the most important number, as traders want to continue to see claims around the 400,000 mark. Claims are released at 8:30 a.m. Expectations are for a initial claims number of 415,000. This is slightly up from last week's 409,000. Continuing claims are expected to come in at 4.08 million. PPI is going to be released at 8:30 as well, and economists expect December PPI rose 0.8%. Core PPI is expected to rise 0.2%. Futures are slightly higher going into the numbers. Dow futures are up 3 points, S&P 500 futures are up 0.3 points and NASDAQ futures are up 2 points.