US Factory Orders fell by 1.4%

New orders for U.S.-made goods recorded their biggest decline in six months in January and business spending on equipment appeared to be slowing after strong growth in 2017. Factory goods orders fell 1.4 percent amid a broad decrease in demand, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. That was the largest drop since July 2017 and followed five straight monthly increases. Factory orders rose 1.8 percent in December.

ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI fell to 59.5

The NMI® registered 59.5 percent, which is 0.4 percentage point lower than the January reading of 59.9 percent. This represents continued growth in the non-manufacturing sector at a slightly slower rate. The Non-Manufacturing Business Activity Index increased to 62.8 percent, 3 percentage points higher than the January reading of 59.8 percent, reflecting growth for the 103rd consecutive month, at a faster rate in February. The New Orders Index registered 64.8 percent, 2.1 percentage points higher than the reading of 62.7 percent in January. The Employment Index decreased 6.6 percentage points in February to 55 percent from the January reading of 61.6 percent.

USD - Major events in the week ahead

Events that marked the week:

On Monday New Home Sales figures were published. Sales of new single-family houses in January 2018 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 593,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 7.8 percent below the revised December rate of 643,000 and is 1.0 percent) below the January 2017 estimate of 599,000. The median sales price of new houses sold in January 2018 was $323,000. The average sales price was $382,700. The seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of January was 301,000. This represents a supply of 6.1 months at the current sales rate.

Consumer sentiment hits 99.7 in February vs. 99.3 estimate

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index ticked down at the end of February, but remained at historically high levels. The latest reading came in at 99.3, slightly below the mid-month figure of 99.9. Consumer sentiment inched down at the end of February, but still exceeded expectations after shooting up in a mid-month reading.