Just when you thought you had recovered from Halloween, along comes a week with a Friday the 13th. Could the economy get any scarier - or unluckier?

Actually, there won't be much in the way of data to make the situation appear worse, especially in the wake of Friday's employment report which came just two days after a cryptic statement from the Federal Open Market Committee There won't be much to make it look better, either.

Readers of FOMC statements - who practice their craft by staring at the bottom of coffee or tea cups - noted the emphasis the policy makers placed on inflation rather than growth as they look to end the Fed's aggressive monetary policy. Reading between the lines suggests the FOMC may have known the employment report -- or part of it -- could be seen as showing a labor turn with the number of jobs lost dipping below 200,000 for only the second time in the last 14 months.