USD - Major events in the week ahead

Friday, Apr 22 2016

Events that marked the week:

On Tuesday Housing Starts and Building Permits figures were published. New-home construction in the U.S. slumped more than projected in March, reflecting a broad-based retreat that showed the industry lost momentum heading into the busiest time of year. Residential starts decreased 8.8% to a 1.09 million annualized rate that was the lowest since October. Permits, a proxy for future construction, also dropped. Estimates of 78 economists polled ranged from 1.12 million to 1.22 million. The previous month was revised up to 1.19 million from a 1.18 million pace. Permits decreased 7.7% to a 1.09 million annualized rate, the fewest in a year.

Wednesday brought Existing Home Sales figures. Bolstered by big gains in the Northeast and Midwest, existing-home sales bounced back in March and remained slightly up from a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors. Total existing-home sales jumped 5.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.33 million in March from a downwardly revised 5.07 million in February. Sales rose in all four major regions last month and are up modestly from March 2015.

Thursday was marked by Unemployment Claims and Philly Fed Manufacturing Index data. In the week ending April 16, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 247,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 253,000. This is the lowest level for initial claims since November 24, 1973 when it was 233,000. The 4-week moving average was 260,500, a decrease of 4,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 265,000. There were no special factors impacting this week's initial claims. This marks 59 consecutive weeks of initial claims below 300,000, the longest streak since 1973.

Separate report on Philly Fed Manufacturing Index showed that the index for current activity decreased from 12.4 in March to -1.6 this month. Analysts were expecting smaller decrease to 8.1.The index had turned positive last month following six consecutive negative readings. The current new orders and shipments indexes also fell this month. The percentage of firms reporting a rise in new orders was exactly offset by the percentage reporting a decline. The unfilled orders and delivery time indexes suggested weakness, as both indexes were in negative territory this month. Firms continued to report overall declines in inventories.

This week markets will be looking at:

New Home Sales (Monday 16:00)

Durable Goods Orders (Tuesday 14:30)

CB Consumer Confidence (Tuesday 16:00)

Pending Home Sales (Wednesday 16:00)

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

Unemployment Claims (Thursday 14:30)

Advance GDP (Thursday 14:30)

Chicago PMI (Friday 15:45)

Revised UoM Consumer Sentiment (Friday 16:00)

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