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New housing, manufacturing and jobless data will interest stock investors

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With investors still divided about whether the stock market’s rough patch will end any time soon, economic data out this week will be closely scrutinized.

Besides the weekly jobless claims numbers, housing and manufacturing data will attract the most attention.

The Standard and Poor’s Case-Shiller April home prices index, due out Tuesday, and the National Assn. of Realtors’ May pending home sales index, due out Wednesday, could confirm the housing market’s double dip.

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Factory activity grew in May at its slowest pace since September 2009, according to the Institute for Supply Management, and the group’s number for factory activity in June, due out Friday, is expected to drop to 51.9, indicating an even slower rate of growth.

The number of new applications for unemployment insurance, due out Thursday, is expected to land above 400,000 for a 12th straight week, according to economists polled by Reuters.

Personal income and consumption figures for May, out Monday, are expected to tick higher.

Consumer confidence in June might be buoyed by a sharp drop in crude oil prices, but Tuesday’s consumer confidence report from the Conference Board is still expected to be down slightly from May.

Last week, the Federal Reserve gave a bleak outlook on the economy, lowering its forecasts for growth in the nation’s gross domestic product for both 2011 and 2012. And Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke found it hard to explain the sources of an economic “soft patch.”

The S&P 500 finished last week down 0.24% at 1,268.45. The Dow industrials lost 0.58% for the week, closing Friday at 11,934.58, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.39% for the week to 2,652.89.

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