Also, House Prices figures were released. The price index for residential properties for the weighted average of the eight capital cities rose 1.9% in the June quarter 2017. The index rose 10.2% through the year to the June quarter 2017. The capital city residential property price indexes rose in Sydney (+2.3%), Melbourne (+3.0%), Brisbane (+0.6%), Adelaide (+0.8%), Canberra (+1.3%) and Hobart (+1.8%) and fell in Perth (-0.8%) and Darwin (-1.4%).
Focus of the Wednesday's session was on Fed's interest rate decision. Federal Reserve officials set an October start for shrinking their $4.5 trillion stockpile of assets, moving to unwind a pillar of their crisis-era support for the economy. Policy makers left the benchmark interest rate unchanged in a range of 1 percent to 1.25 percent. They continued to forecast one more interest-rate hike later this year, saying storm damage will have only a temporary impact on the economy.
“Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria have devastated many communities, inflicting severe hardship,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in its statement on Wednesday following a two-day meeting in Washington. “Storm-related disruptions and rebuilding will affect economic activity in the near term, but past experience suggests that the storms are unlikely to materially alter the course of the national economy over the medium term.”
Thursday brought Unemployment Claims and Philly Fed Manufacturing Index figures. In the week ending September 16, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 259,000, a decrease of 23,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 2,000 from 284,000 to 282,000. The 4-week moving average was 268,750, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's revised average. This is the highest level for this average since June 4, 2016 when it was 269,500. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma impacted this week's claims.
The index for current manufacturing activity in the region increased 5 points to a reading of 23.8 and has remained positive for 14 consecutive months. Nearly 39 percent of the firms indicated increases in activity this month; 15 percent reported a decrease in activity. The new orders and shipments indexes also registered an improvement, increasing 9 points and 8 points, respectively. Both the unfilled orders and delivery times indexes were positive for the 11th consecutive month, suggesting longer delivery times and an increase in unfilled orders.
This week markets will be looking at:
CB Consumer Confidence (Tuesday 16:00)
New Home Sales (Tuesday 16:00)
Durable Goods Orders (Wednesday 14:30)
Pending Home Sales (Wednesday 16:00)
Unemployment Claims (Thursday 14:30)
Final GDP (Thursday 14:30)
Chicago PMI (Friday 15:45)
Revised UoM Consumer Sentiment (Friday 16:00)
