USD - Major events in the week ahead

Friday, Apr 24 2015

Events that marked the week:

In the US session, on Wednesday, Existing Home Sales figures were released. Existing Home Sales increased 6.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.19 million in March from 4.89 million in February—the highest annual rate since September 2013 (also 5.19 million). Analysts were anticipating smaller increase to a rate of 5.04 million. Sales have increased year-over-year for six consecutive months and are now 10.4% above a year ago, the highest annual increase since August 2013. March's sales increase was the largest monthly increase since December 2010.

Thursday's session brought Unemployment Claims, Manufacturing PMI and New Home Sales figures. In the week ending April 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 295,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 294,000. However, analysts were forecasting decrease to 286,000. The 4-week moving average was 284,500, an increase of 1,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 282,750.

Sales of new single-family houses in March 2015 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 481,000, below expected rate of 514,000. This is 11.4% below the revised February rate of 543,000, but is 19.4% above the March 2014 estimate of 403,000. The median sales price of new houses sold in March 2015 was $277,400; the average sales price was $343,300. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of March was 213,000.

Earlier yesterday, US Manufacturing PMI showed decline to 54.2 in April, from 55.7 in March. Analysts were expecting no change. Although still comfortably above the 50.0 no-change value, the latest index reading signalled the least marked improvement in overall business conditions since January. April data indicated slower growth momentum for the U.S. manufacturing sector, with production volumes and incoming new work both expanding at weaker rates than in the previous month.

Friday was marked by Durable Goods Orders figures. Orders for durable U.S. goods jumped a seasonally adjusted 4% in March, beating market forecasts on 0.2% incline, but the increase was driven almost entirely by higher demand for autos, commercial jets and military hardware. A key measure of business investment, however, fell for the seventh straight month to underscore a slowdown in how much companies are spending. Shipments of core capital goods, a category used to help determine quarterly economic growth, dropped 0.4% in March, while analysts were predicting 0.2% growth.

This week market will be looking at:

CB Consumer Confidence (Tuesday 16:00)

Advance GDP (Wednesday 14:30)

Pending Home Sales (Wednesday 16:00)

FOMC Statement/Federal Funds Rate (Wednesday 20:00)

Unemployment Claims (Thursday 14:30)

Chicago PMI (Thursday 15:45)

ISM Manufacturing PMI (Friday 16:00)

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