Wednesday brought Housing Starts and Building Permits data. Privately-owned housing starts in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,089,000, slightly above market predictions. This is 4.4% above the revised November estimate of 1,043,000 and is 5.3% above the December 2013 rate of 1,034,000. Single-family housing starts in December were at a rate of 728,000; this is 7.2% above the revised November figure of 679,000.

Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,032,000. This was below expected figures of, 1,060,000. This is 1.9% below the revised November rate of 1,052,000, but is 1.0% above the December 2013 estimate of Single-family authorizations in December were at a rate of 667,000; this is 4.5% above the revised November figure of 638,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 338,000 in December.

Thursday US session was marked by Unemployment Claims data. In the week ending January 17, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 307,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised level. Analysts were anticipating decrease to 301,000. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 316,000 to 317,000. The 4-week moving average was 306,500, an increase of 6,500 from the previous week's revised average.

Friday's session brought Existing Home Sales and Manufacturing PMI data. Existing Home Sales rose 2.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million in December from a downwardly-revised 4.92 million in November. Analysts were expecting a rate of 5.08 million. From a year ago, December sales were higher by 3.5% and are now above year-over-year levels for the third straight month.

Separate report on Manufacturing PMI also missed market expectations on an increase to 54.1 and decreased to 53.7 points in January. Slower new business growth was a key factor weighing on the overall performance of the U.S. manufacturing sector in January.

This week markets will be looking at:

Durable Goods Orders /Core Durable Goods Orders (Tuesday 14:30)

CB Consumer Confidence (Tuesday 16:00)

New Home Sales (Tuesday 16:00)

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

Unemployment Claims (Thursday 14:30)

Advance GDP (Friday 14:30)

Chicago PMI (Friday 15:45)

Revised UoM Consumer Sentiment (Friday 15:55)