Sunday September 2, 1:04 pm Eastern Time
Stocks Seen Rising This Week
By Brendan Intindola

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks are expected to rise this week as Wall Street begins September by dusting off vacation-idled desks to find stocks near five-month lows and a few bits of encouraging economic data from late last week.


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``It seems to me that the market is reading every bit of information in the darkest possible shading. The pessimism is setting the stage for the market to respond well when there is news that is not as bad as the market fears,'' said Milton Ezrati, senior economist and strategist at Lord Abbett & Co., an investment management company which oversees about $40 billion.

``We expect the market to start recovering next week. A weekly call is always problematic, but there will be more volume and the bias should be up.''

Trading this week will be cut to four days since the markets are closed Monday, Sept. 3 in observance of America's Labor Day holiday.

Economic data, all covering August, set for release include the monthly employment report on Friday, Tuesday's National Association of Purchasing Management's index, and motor vehicle sales announced on Tuesday.

Bob Robbins, chief investment strategist at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey in Atlanta, said, ``The NAPM numbers are going to be pointing to a recovery in the economy and this is important because this is the first time that real economic activity is being shown to turn up out of six, seven or eight bad months.

``I am forecasting a significantly better than expected number ... and watch the new orders number, I think it will be significantly better than expected,'' Robbins said of the NAPM figures due Tuesday.


MANUFACTURING: PICKING UP A PULSE ؟

Last Friday, stocks ended a three-day rout that scalped leading indexes to lows unseen since early April, and pushed the Dow Jones industrial average(.DJI) below 10,000.

Friday's gain was built on new data showing signs of life in the manufacturing sector: the U.S. government reported new orders for goods ticked up 0.1 percent in July, well above an expected drop of 0.5 percent.

Also, the Chicagoland Business Barometer rose in August to a seasonally adjusted 43.5 from 38.0 in July, the National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago said.

At the same time, the University of Michigan's closely watched consumer sentiment index showed only a modest dip to 91.5 from 92.4 in June.