Today We'll Get A Good Sign About Whether The Economy Really Recovered

Flickr / David Hilowitz

The first week of the month is always great, because it's data week.

Yesterday we got a bunch of manufacturing data.

Today we get car sales.

Here's a preview, from Calculated Risk: "Light vehicle sales for May. The consensus is for light vehicle sales to increase to 16.1 million SAAR in May from 16.0 million in April (Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate)."

Car sales trend to track nicely with the job market. And more generally, cars are the kind of high-dollar purchase people only make when they're feeling good.

So if the economy is really starting to catch fire, as Spring comes, this is a big number to watch.

The manufacturers will be reporting their numbers all day, and we'll be carrying them.