Wednesday's US session brought GDP and Pending Home Sales figures. US GDP increased at an annual rate of 0.2% in the first quarter of 2015, according to the "advance" estimate. Analysts were anticipating 1.0% growth. In the fourth quarter, real GDP increased 2.2%. The increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE) and private inventory investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from exports, nonresidential fixed investment, and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

The Pending Home Sales Index, climbed 1.1% to 108.6 in March from an upward revision of 107.4 in February in line with market predictions and is now 11.1% above March 2014 (97.7). The index has now increased year-over-year for seven consecutive months and is at its highest level since June 2013 (109.4).

The focus was on FOMC Meeting. However,At their latest Meeting Fed officials concluded that “economic growth slowed during the winter months, in part reflecting transitory factors,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement Wednesday in Washington. “The pace of job gains moderated,” it said, and “underutilization of labor resources was little changed.” This added to speculations that we cannot expect any rate hike before September. “Inflation is anticipated to remain near its recent low level in the near term, but the committee expects inflation to rise gradually toward 2 percent over the medium term,” the FOMC said.

“Although growth in output and unemployment slowed during the first quarter, the committee continues to expect that, with appropriate policy accommodation, economic activity will expand at a moderate pace,” the Fed said.The Fed repeated it will raise rates when it sees further labor-market improvement and is “reasonably confident” inflation will move back to its 2 percent goal over time. The decision was unanimous.

Thursday was marked by Unemployment Claims data. In the week ending April 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 262,000, a decrease of 34,000 from the previous week's revised level. Analyst were forecasting smaller decrease to 285,000. This is the lowest level for initial claims since April 15, 2000 when it was 259,000. The 4-week moving average was 283,750, a decrease of 1,250 from the previous week's revised average. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.7% for the week ending April 18, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate.

On Friday Manufacturing PMI figures were released.US Manufacturing PMI registered 51.5 percent, the same reading as in March, thus missing forecasts on incline to 52.1. The New Orders Index registered 53.5 percent, an increase of 1.7 percentage points from the reading of 51.8 percent in March. 

This week markets will be looking at:

Trade Balance (Tuesday 14:30)

ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI (Tuesday 16:00)

ADP Non-Farm Employment Change (Wednesday 14:15)

Unemployment Claims (Thursday 14:30)

Non-Farm Employment Change/Unemployment Rate (Friday 14:30)