The "Construction Spending" report is issued by the United States Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce on a monthly basis at 10:00 EST n the first business day of the month.
The "Construction Spending" reports covers data for two prior month and is broken down between residential, non-residential, and public expenditures on new construction.
The U.S. Commerce Department calculations of the amount of spending on residential and non-residential construction is an important factor in the housing market and is used as a component of quarterly GDP calculations. Even the "Construction Spending" report is considered to be important, as a rule, it rarely has any impact on the market. Due to the high volatility in monthly numbers three-month and longer-term data are considered significant.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Construction Spending
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Sales and Labor
Key economic data for the first week of February 2010 starting February 2nd, 2010.
Economic Calendar key:
Consensus represents the market consensus estimate for each indicator.
Prior represents the last actual for each indicator.
| Date | Release | For | Consensus | Prior |
| 02/01/10 8:30 AM | Personal Income | Dec | 0.3% | 0.4% |
| 02/01/10 8:30 AM | Personal Spending | Dec | 0.3% | 0.5% |
| 02/01/10 10:00 AM | Construction Spending | Dec | -0.5% | -0.6% |
| 02/01/10 10:00 AM | ISM Index | Jan | 55.2 | 55.9 |
| 02/02/10 2:00 PM | Auto Sales | Jan | NA | 4.14M |
| 02/02/10 2:00 PM | Truck Sales | Jan | NA | 4.49M |
| 02/02/10 10:00 AM | Pending Home Sales | Dec | 1.1% | -16.0% |
| 02/03/10 7:30 AM | Challenger Job Cuts | Jan | NA | -72.9% |
| 02/03/10 8:15 AM | ADP Employment Change | Jan | -40K | -84K |
| 02/03/10 10:00 AM | ISM Services | Jan | 50.9 | 50.1 |
| 02/03/10 10:30 AM | Crude Inventories | 1/29 | NA | -3.89M |
| 02/04/10 8:30 AM | Initial Claims | 01/30 | 454K | 470K |
| 02/04/10 8:30 AM | Continuing Claims | 01/30 | 4600K | 4602K |
| 02/04/10 8:30 AM | Productivity-Prel | Q4 | 6.0% | 8.1% |
| 02/04/10 8:30 AM | Unit Labor Costs - Preliminary | Q4 | -2.5% | -2.5% |
| 02/04/10 10:00 AM | Factory Orders | Dec | 0.6% | 1.1% |
| 02/05/10 3:00 PM | Consumer Credit | Dec | -$9.5B | -$17.5B |
| 02/05/10 8:30 AM | Nonfarm Payrolls | Jan | 13K | -85K |
| 02/05/10 8:30 AM | Unemployment Rate | Jan | 10.0% | 10.0% |
| 02/05/10 8:30 AM | Average Workweek | Jan | 33.2 | 33.2 |
| 02/05/10 8:30 AM | Hourly Earnings | Jan | 0.2% | 0.2% |
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Existing-Home Sales
The Existing-Home Sales statistics report is published by the United States National Association of Realtors (NAR) and is the premier measurement of the residential real estate market. The existing homes (as defined by the National Association of Realtors) are all previously-owned single-family homes, townhouses, condominiums, and co-ops. The Existing-Home Sales report is published on monthly basis on or about the 25th. The report releases statistics on sales and prices of existing single-family homes. The statistics is released for the nation as well as for the four main regions. On February 25, 2005, in addition to single-family homes, the National Association of Realtors added condos and co-ops to this statistics report. At the same time on quarterly basis the NAR publishes state-by-state existing-home sales and metro area home prices report.
Existing-Home Sales is considered as an economic indicator of both the number and prices of existing single-family homes, condos and co-op sales over a one-month period. It is a lagging indicator as it tends to react after a change in mortgage rates. This indicator is thought to be a good measure of demand in the real-estate sector, yet, it does not look at newly built houses or the sale of new houses.
Week of Home Sale Reports
Key economic data for the forth week (last week) of January 2010 starting January 25th, 2010.
Economic Calendar key:
Consensus represents the market consensus estimate for each indicator.
Prior represents the last actual for each indicator.
| Date | Release | For | Consensus | Prior |
| 01/25/10 10:00 AM | Existing Home Sales | Dec | 5.90M | 6.54M |
| 01/26/10 9:00 AM | Case-Shiller 20-city Index | Nov | -5.00% | -7.28% |
| 01/26/10 10:00 AM | Consumer Confidence | Jan | 53.5 | 53.3 |
| 01/26/10 10:00 AM | FHFA Home Price Index | Nov | 0.1% | 0.6% |
| 01/27/10 2:15 PM | FOMC Rate Decision | 1/27 | 0.25% | 0.25% |
| 01/27/10 10:00 AM | New Home Sales | Dec | 370K | 355K |
| 01/27/10 10:30 AM | Crude Inventories | 1/22 | NA | -0.471M |
| 01/28/10 8:30 AM | Initial Claims | 01/23 | 450K | 482K |
| 01/28/10 8:30 AM | Continuing Claims | 01/16 | 4600K | 4599K |
| 01/28/10 8:30 AM | Durable Orders | Dec | 2.0% | 0.2% |
| 01/29/10 8:30 AM | GDP-Adv. | Q4 | 4.6% | 2.2% |
| 01/29/10 8:30 AM | Chain Deflator-Adv. | Q4 | 1.3% | 0.4% |
| 01/29/10 8:30 AM | Employment Cost Index | Q4 | 0.4% | 0.4% |
| 01/29/10 9:45 AM | Chicago PMI | Jan | 57.4 | 58.7 |
| 01/29/10 9:55 AM | University of Michigan Sentiment | Jan | 73.0 | 72.8 |
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Housing Starts
Housing starts is the number tracked and reported by United States Census
Bureau which reflect privately owned new houses (technically housing units) on
which construction has been started in a given period. The Housing Starts data
is divided into three types:
- Single-family houses;
- Townhouses or small condos;
- Apartment buildings with five or more units.
In case of the apartments each unit is considered a single start.
Furthermore, the construction of a 60-unit apartment building is counted as 60
housing starts.
Home Buildings and Sales
Key economic data for the third week of January 2010 starting January 19th, 2010.
Economic Calendar key:
Consensus represents the market consensus estimate for each indicator.
Prior represents the last actual for each indicator.
| Date | Release | For | Consensus | Prior |
| 01/19/10 9:00 AM | Net Long-Term TIC Flows | Nov | $27.5B | $20.7B |
| 01/20/10 8:30 AM | Building Permits | Dec | 580K | 584K |
| 01/20/10 8:30 AM | Core PPI | Dec | 0.1% | 0.5% |
| 01/20/10 8:30 AM | Housing Starts | Dec | 575K | 574K |
| 01/20/10 8:30 AM | PPI | Dec | 0.0% | 1.8% |
| 01/21/10 8:30 AM | Initial Claims | 01/16 | 440K | 444K |
| 01/21/10 8:30 AM | Continuing Claims | 1/09 | 4600K | 4596K |
| 01/21/10 10:00 AM | Leading Indicators | Dec | 0.7% | 0.9% |
| 01/21/10 10:00 AM | Philadelphia Fed | Jan | 18.8 | 20.4 |
| 01/21/10 11:00 AM | Crude Inventories | 1/15 | NA | 3.70M |
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Straddle Trading
One of the ways of using economic reports, financial news and earning releases is using them in straddle trading. Straddle trading is an options trading strategy that involves simultaneous buying put and call options with the same strike price - the most common way is to use ATM (at-the-money) options.
Straddle trading provides a unique opportunity to profit from options trading no matter where the market goes. However, in order a straddle to be profitable, an underlying stock has to make big move.
As a rule earning release, FED announcements and other scheduled financial and economic reports could be used to expect such big moves and increased volatility. Right after the economic releases you may see sudden increase in volatility and as result, there a possibility that if a stock makes a strong move up the call options will gain in value more than the put options lose in their value. Respectfully, following economic news release, the strong down move may result in the put options gain would out-beating the call options loss.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Export an Import
Key economic data for the Second week of January 2010 starting January 11th, 2010. This week is options expiration week. January 2010 options will expire on Friday, January 15, 2010.
Economic Calendar key:
Consensus represents the market consensus estimate for each indicator.
Prior represents the last actual for each indicator.
| Date | Release | For | Consensus | Prior |
| 01/12/10 8:30 AM | Trade Balance | Nov | -$34.5B | -$32.9B |
| 01/13/10 2:00 PM | Treasury Budget | Dec | -$92.0B | -$120.3B |
| 01/13/10 2:00 PM | Fed's Beige Book | |||
| 01/13/10 10:30 AM | Crude Inventories | 1/08 | NA | 1.33M |
| 01/14/10 8:30 AM | Initial Claims | 01/09 | 433K | 434K |
| 01/14/10 8:30 AM | Continuing Claims | 1/2 | 4800K | 4802K |
| 01/14/10 8:30 AM | Retail Sales | Dec | 0.5% | 1.3% |
| 01/14/10 8:30 AM | Retail Sales ex-auto | Dec | 0.3% | 1.2% |
| 01/14/10 8:30 AM | Export Prices ex-ag. | Dec | NA | 0.7% |
| 01/14/10 8:30 AM | Import Prices ex-oil | Dec | NA | 0.4% |
| 01/14/10 10:00 AM | Business Inventories | Nov | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| 01/15/10 8:30 AM | Core CPI | Dec | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| 01/15/10 8:30 AM | CPI | Dec | 0.2% | 0.4% |
| 01/15/10 8:30 AM | Empire Manufacturing Survey | Jan | 11.25 | 2.55 |
| 01/15/10 9:15 AM | Capacity Utilization | Dec | 71.8% | 71.3% |
| 01/15/10 9:15 AM | Industrial Production | Dec | 0.6% | 0.8% |
| 01/15/10 9:55 AM | Mich Sentiment | Jan | 73.8 | 72.5 |
