The Day Ahead: Packed Econ Calendar Versus Ongoing Greek Drama
Today's data includes Retail Sales, The Consumer Price Index, and The Empire State Manufacturing survey... And that's just the 8:30am time slot! Treasury International Capital (TIC - or the tally of foreign holdings of US debt) hits at 9AM, FOMC voter Duke speaks on the housing recovery at 9:30am, Business Inventories hit at 10am, joined by The NAHB Housing Market Index in the same time slot.
That's quite a bit of data and some traditional market-movers to boot. Back in the old days, Tuesday's line up would have been somewhat exciting. Market analysts for various websites might even have spoken about it as if it would be a meaningful component in the day's market movement, devoting nearly two paragraphs to what would likely turn out to be inconsequential calendar filler next to the meatier Greek political drama that has us oh so transfixed.
Get Caught Up On Greece HERE
Don't get us wrong, it's not that Greece is the one and only market-mover or that the economic data that transpires today lacks significance completely. Rather, Greece is simply the 800 LB gorilla. The story linked above discusses the prospects for new elections in the beleaguered nation, an event likely to leave Lefty McLeftenstein Alexis Tsipras in power, or closer to it. If that happens, no one really knows what to expect considering Tsipras' platform of mutually exclusive ideals: staying in the European Union, but doing away with the austerity measures that have allowed Greece to stay in the European Union.
It's a puzzler to be sure... But sadly, the fate of the world, or at least the fate of the Euro-zone seems to be hanging in the balance (again). And so, like everyone else, we wait for Greek headlines so that we might better ascertain whether or not the Eurozone embarks on what we're emphatically told is an inevitable road to collapse. No person told us this, mind you. Rather, it's German Bunds trading into the 1.4's and 10yr US Treasuries spending all day in the 1.7's waiting for Greece.
|
Week Of Mon, May 14 2012 - Fri, May 18 2012 |
||||||
|
Time |
Event |
Period |
Unit |
Forecast |
Prior |
Actual |
|
Tue, May 15 |
||||||
|
08:30 |
Consumer Prices mm |
Apr |
% |
+0.1 |
+0.3 |
-- |
|
08:30 |
Retail sales mm |
Apr |
% |
+0.2 |
+0.8 |
-- |
|
08:30 |
Empire State Index |
May |
-- |
9.00 |
6.56 |
-- |
|
09:00 |
Foreign buying, T-bonds (TIC) |
Mar |
bl |
-- |
15.35 |
-- |
|
09:00 |
Overall net capital flows (TIC) |
Mar |
bl |
-- |
10.1 |
-- |
|
10:00 |
Business inventories mm |
Mar |
% |
+0.4 |
+0.6 |
-- |
|
10:00 |
NAHB housing market indx |
May |
-- |
26 |
25 |
-- |
|
Wed, May 16 |
||||||
|
07:00 |
Mortgage refinance index |
w/e |
-- |
-- |
3734.8 |
-- |
|
07:00 |
Mortgage market index |
w/e |
-- |
-- |
710.4 |
-- |
|
08:30 |
Housing starts number mm |
Apr |
ml |
.683 |
.654 |
-- |
|
08:30 |
Building permits: number |
Apr |
ml |
.726 |
.764 |
-- |
|
09:15 |
Capacity utilization mm |
Apr |
% |
79.0 |
78.6 |
-- |
|
09:15 |
Industrial output mm |
Apr |
% |
+0.6 |
0.0 |
-- |
|
14:00 |
FOMC Minutes From Apr 24/25th Meeting |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
Thu, May 17 |
||||||
|
08:30 |
Initial Jobless Claims |
w/e |
k |
365 |
367 |
-- |
|
08:30 |
Continued jobless claims |
w/e |
ml |
3.24 |
3.229 |
-- |
|
10:00 |
Leading index chg mm |
Apr |
% |
+0.1 |
+0.3 |
-- |
|
10:00 |
Philly Fed Index |
May |
-- |
10.0 |
8.5 |
-- |