Durable Goods Orders fell more than forecasted

Orders for business equipment at U.S. factories unexpectedly fell for a second month, a sign that demand is cooling from its hot pace in recent quarters, a Commerce Department report showed Tuesday. Non-military capital goods orders excluding aircraft declined 0.2% (est. up 0.5%) after falling 0.6% the prior month.

New Home Sales fell to 593,000

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. Read more...

USD - Major events in the week ahead

Events that marked the week:

On Wednesday Exisiting Home Sales figures were released. Total existing-home sales , which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, sank 3.2 percent in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.38 million from a downwardly revised 5.56 million in December 2017. After last month’s decline, sales are 4.8 percent below a year ago (largest annual decline since August 2014 at 5.5 percent) and at their slowest pace since last September (5.37 million). Read more...

With rates low, Fed officials fret over next U.S. recession

Federal Reserve policymakers are fretting that they could face the next U.S. recession with an arsenal of policies little different from that used in the last downturn but robbed of much of their punch because interest rates are still low. In the midst of an unprecedented leadership transition, Fed officials are publicly debating how to prepare for the next downturn. Should they scrap their approach to inflation targeting? How big of a balance sheet should they retain? How much further can they raise interest rates and still keep the economy on a growth path?