“The big event this week is Wednesday, when U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke testifies in front of the Joint Economic Committee, while the Fed releases the FOMC minutes to the April 30 and May 1 meeting.

The markets were all aflutter last week as John Williams from the San Francisco Fed (a dove) indicated he wanted to taper off purchases sooner rather than later.

But Bernanke is likely to reiterate exactly what he said at the May 1 meeting: that they are “prepared to increase or reduce” their bond purchases as the labor markets or inflation outlook changes.

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The U.S. budget deficit will drop to $378 billion in 2015 from a record $1.4 trillion in 2009, according to Congressional Budget Office data. The federal government will post a $642 billion deficit this year, the first time in five years that the shortfall has been less than $1 trillion. Moody’s said Sept. 11 that the U.S.’s top Aaa rating would likely be cut to Aa1 if an agreement on the debt ratio isn’t reached.

“The fact that it showed much lower debt levels going forward, we view as a positive development,” Steven Hess, senior vice-president at Moody’s and based in New York, said in a telephone interview of the CBO forecast. “More needs to be done on the policy front to address this rising debt ratio.”

While projections from the non-partisan budget office forecast the ratio of U.S. debt to gross-domestic-product declining to less than 71 percent by fiscal year 2018, the CBO forecasts the measure will increase “thereafter, pointing to the uncertain long-term outlook if reform of entitlement programs does not take place at some point,” Moody’s said in a report.

Budget Proposals….”

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The world’s most valuable technology company has $102 billion in offshore accounts and shifted billions in profits out of the U.S. into affiliates, based in Ireland where it negotiated a tax rate of less than 2 percent, according to a report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The offshore entities of the Cupertino, Calif.-based company have paid little or no tax in recent years, the probe found.

One Apple affiliate – Apple Operations International – generated net income of $30 billion between 2009 and 2012, and declined to declare a tax residence, filed no corporate tax return and payed no income taxes to any nation, the report said. AOI is Apple’s principal offshore holding company.

“Apple wasn’t satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven,” Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the chairman of the panel, said in a prepared statement. “Apple sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance. It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars, while claiming to be tax resident nowhere.”

Release of the report comes in advance of a subcommittee hearing Tuesday, where Apple executives including Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and Chief Financial Office Peter Oppenheimer are scheduled to testify. Cook’s appearance is unprecedented for Apple, whose co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs never testified before Congress.

$6 Billion…”

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To wit: “Our earnings estimates remain unchanged but we raise our dividend estimates and index return forecasts for 2013 through 2015. We expect S&P 500 will rise by 5% to 1750 by year-end 2013, advance by 9% to 1900 in 2014, and climb by 10% to 2100 in 2015….”

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MGPA manages about $12 billion, focusing on real estate funds management, co-investments and separate-account mandates for institutional investors, BlackRock said today in a statement. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter and won’t materially affect BlackRock’searnings per share, the New York-based firm said….”

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One tornado leveled Plaza Towers Elementary, a school in Moore, a city of 55,000 people about 15 miles south of Oklahoma City, the state capital. Jerry Lojka, an official with the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, said Monday evening that rescue workers were “trying to turn over every stick to find survivors” at the school. The estimated number of fatalities was as of late evening….”

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The Philadelphia-based specialty retailer said revenue rose 14% for the three months ended April 30 to a record $648.1 million, less than an average forecast of $655.1 million, according to according to Yahoo! (YHOO_) Finance. Profit jumped 39%…”

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Thanks to the slowly brightening employment picture, along with the uptick in the housing market, more and more people are packing up and relocating. And the pace is likely to pick up this summer, the peak season for moving, according to industry professionals.

It’s a far cry from just a few years ago.

“Two years ago, it seemed like everything was falling off the face of the Earth,” said Randy Shacka, president of Two Men and a Truck, a franchise moving company.” But monthly payroll growth averaging 208,000 is turning that around—and spurring job-related moves.

Even though overall moving activity is still below where it was in 2009-2010, the number of people moving for a new job or transfer is on the rise. Moves for those reasons totaled 3.5 million in 2011-2012, up from 2.8 million the prior year and the highest since 2006-2007, according to Census Bureau data. And the number of people moving because they had lost a job or were looking for work declined.

The recovering housing market is also giving people the flexibility to move by making it easier for people to sell their homes. The National Association of Realtors’ chief economist says that with relatively few houses on the market, double-digit gains in housing prices are possible in 2013. And that, in turn, is spurring construction—making moving easier….”

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Net income in the quarter ended May 5 rose 18 percent to $1.23 billion, or 83 cents a share, from $1.04 billion, or 68 cents, a year earlier, the Atlanta-based company said today in a statement. Analysts projected 76 cents, the average of 25 estimates in a Bloomberg survey.

Home Depot is benefiting from rising U.S. home prices that are giving homeowners the confidence to start projects and spend more. Revenue rose 7.4 percent to $19.1 billion, topping analysts’ $18.6 billion estimate, as the average customer purchase increased 5 percent to $57.24.

Spending rose on “consumers’ confidence to invest in higher ticket projects,” John Tomlinson, an analyst at ITG Investment Research in New York, said today in an e-mail. His company doesn’t rate shares.

Profit this year will be $3.52 a share, up from a previous estimate of $3.37, the company said today. The guidance includes the effect of share repurchases the company already has made and plans to make this year. Analysts estimated $3.54, on average.

Residential real-estate prices rose in February by the most since May 2006, with the S&P/Case-Shiller (SPCS20) index of house values in 20 cities up 9.3 percent from a year ago.

Home Depot rose 3.8 percent to $79.68 at 7:26 a.m. in New York. The shares advanced 24 percent this year through yesterday, compared with a 17 percent gain by the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

Transactions Increase…”

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Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. (HSII) and Russell Reynolds Associates say they see some increase in demand, a trend that was echoed in a recent survey of consultants by William Blair & Co., an independent investment firm. Meanwhile, sentiment among chief executive officers strengthened in April to the highest level in almost two years, as the Chief Executive magazine confidence index rose to 6.07 from 5.55 the prior month, based on an e-mail survey conducted by the magazine.

Rising CEO confidence is a “key indicator” that’s helping to boost demand in the executive-recruitment industry, saidTimothy Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management in New York, which manages more than $1.5 billion. “In the mid-to-later stages of an economic expansion, competition for business leadership intensifies, prompting more companies to employ search firms to attract talent.”

Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.5 percent annualized rate in the three months ended March 31, following a 0.4 percent gain in the fourth quarter, according to the Commerce Department. Growth was slower than the 3 percent median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Revenue Growth…”

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The loss of 24 cents a share in the quarter ended May 4 compares with net income of $158 million, or 46 cents, a year earlier, the Richfield, Minnesota-based company said today in a statement….”

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Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will discuss the economic outlook in congressional testimony and the central bank will publish minutes of its latest meeting tomorrow. Fed Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said yesterday the economy has improved “quite a lot.” Gold futures rose 1.4 percent yesterday, the first gain since May 8, after Moody’s Investors Service said U.S. policy makers must address debt woes to avoid a credit-rating cut this year.

“Market participants should be watching the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech and the Federal Open Market Committee minutes, which are expected to give rise to concerns of the continuation of the QE program,” analysts at Hyderabad, India-based Karvy Comtrade Ltd. wrote today in a report, referring to quantitative easing. “This would weigh down on gold prices.”

Gold for June delivery fell 0.5 percent to $1,376.70 an ounce by 7:47 a.m. on the Comex in New York. Prices slid to $1,336.30 yesterday, the lowest since April 18, before rebounding. Futures trading volume was 31 percent above the average in the past 100 days for this time of day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Gold for immediate delivery in London declined 1.1 percent to $1,378.80.

ETP Holdings…”

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Futures fell as much as 0.5 percent in New York after advancing for a fourth day yesterday. U.S. crude supplies fell by 800,000 barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg News survey before a report tomorrow from the Energy Information Administration. That would still leave inventories 3 percent higher than a year ago. The industry-funded American Petroleum Institute is scheduled to release its stockpile data today.

“There’s nothing here to fundamentally justify a sustained price push at the moment, while expectations of future supplies are rather comfortable,” said Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital in London.

WTI for June delivery was at $96.21 a barrel, down 50 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 12:15 p.m. London time. The contract expires today. The volume of all contracts traded was 7.3 percent below the 100-day average. The more active July future fell 52 cents to $96.42. Front-month prices increased 69 cents yesterday, or 0.7 percent, to $96.71, the highest close since April 2.

Brent for July settlement slid 71 cents to $104.09 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark grade was at a premium of $7.68 to WTI for the same month, down from $7.87 yesterday.

Fuel Supplies….”

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Consumer prices rose 2.4 percent from a year earlier, down from 2.8 percent in March, theOffice for National Statistics said in London today. The median forecast of 35 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was 2.6 percent. Core inflation also cooled, while factory-gate prices increased at the slowest annual pace in 3 1/2 years. The pound weakened….”

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The true surplus is about $6 billion, according to Lu Ting, Bank of America’s head of Greater China economics in Hong Kong. That would be the smallest for January-April since the nation posted a $10.8 billion deficit in 2004.

Lu’s calculations suggest the surplus shrank instead of tripling from a year earlier, a sign that global demand is restraining rather than boosting the world’s second-largest economy. Bank of America’s estimate underscores the size of possible discrepancies in the trade data, which has been disputed by analysts for four months, and broader skepticism about Chinese statistics from gross domestic product to jobs.

“Growth is weak in China now — the overstated export growth means the real growth is slightly weaker,” said Shen Jianguang, chief Asia economist at Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd. in Hong Kong. “We are expecting to see a fairly big drop in export growth in the coming months” as regulators crack down on so-called hot-money inflows, he said.

The government reported a trade surplus of $18.8 billion for the first four months of 2012.

Money Flows…”

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