On Tap Today: Productivity and Unit Labor Costs, Factory Orders

Headlining today's schedule of economic events is the release of the first-quarter productivity report.

Wall Street players monitoring inflationary cues will keep an eye on the data, which are released by the Labor Department before the opening bell. In addition, factory orders for April also are slated for release today. Economists, however, pay little attention to this indicator because the data are considered somewhat dated.

In earnings news, food and drug retailer Albertson's(ABS) will issue profit results for its fiscal first quarter. According to research firm Thomson Financial/First Call, the company is expected to post first-quarter earnings of 45 cents a share, compared with 53 cents a share in the year-ago quarter. Ahead of earnings, the Boise, Idaho-based company named Ertharin Cousin senior vice president, public relations and government affairs.

Shares fell 58 cents, or 2%, to $27.90 yesterday.

On the IPO front, today marks the end of the lockup period for the start-ups listed below.

Economic Data

(Forecasts are from Reuters. Times are Eastern. For a longer-term economic calendar and more, see TSC's Economic Databank.)

• 8:30 a.m.: Productivity for Q1-final. Source: Labor Department. Forecast: -0.8%. Previous: -0.1%. Unit labor costs: Forecast: +0.6%. Previous: +5.2%.

• 9 a.m.: BTM-UBSW Weekly Chain Store Sales Index for the week ended June 2. Source: Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and UBS Warburg. Forecast: n.a. Previous: -0.1%.

• 9 a.m.: Redbook Retail Average for the month through June 2 vs. April. Source: LJR Redbook. Forecast: n.a. Previous: +0.8%.

• 10 a.m.: Factory orders for April. Source: Census Bureau. Forecast: -2.8%. Previous: +1.8%.

IPO Lockups Expiring

(TheStreet.com's Michael Falbo, who writes a column for TSC's ipoPros.com subsidiary, keeps a close eye on lockup expirations every week. For more on lockup expirations and why they matter, check out Ben Holmes' primer on the subject. The full current lockup expiration list is published separately. For information on IPO pricings, filings and aftermarket activity, plus a calendar of upcoming IPOs, check out TheStreet.com's IPO data section.)

Lockup End	Deal Name	Symbol	Lead Underwriter
6/5/01	Garmin	(GRMN:Nasdaq)	Credit Suisse First Boston
6/5/01	Harvard Bioscience	(HBIO:Nasdaq)	Thomas Weisel
6/5/01	Specialty Laboratories	(SP:NYSE)	Merrill Lynch
* = Lockup expiration may be extended or modified by a pending secondary offering.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints