In January 2005, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) introduced a new series of reports to overcome the lagging effect of the existing home sales definition. The new report is called Pending Home Sales and is published on monthly basis (first week of the month). The Pending Home Sales data are based on sales of existing homes where the contract has been signed (house was sold on paper) but the transaction has not been closed, which could be considered roughly equivalent to the new home sales. When a home sale contract is sign a broker considers it as a sale and reports it as a sale. However, until transaction is not closed this sale is considered as pending and not closed. Taking into account that some sales contracts are never consummated, pending contract cannot be considered as existing home sale.
The pending Home Sales data are are expressed as an index and were recalculated back to 2001 where the the index has been set to equal 100.0. The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) is considered as leading indicator of the activity in the housing market and this index is used to predict Existing Home Sales (Pending becomes Existing in several months) as well as predict actual home sales activity.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Pending Home Sale
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Fed's Beige Book Week
Key economic data for the First week of March 2010 starting March 1st, 2010. Futures, options and index options will expire in March.
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 |
| 03/01/10 8:30 AM | Personal Income | Jan | 0.4% | 0.4% |
| 03/01/10 8:30 AM | Personal Spending | Jan | 0.4% | 0.2% |
| 03/01/10 8:30 AM | PCE Prices - Core | Jan | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| 03/01/10 10:00 AM | Construction Spending | Jan | -0.5% | -1.2% |
| 03/01/10 10:00 AM | ISM Index | Feb | 57.8 | 58.4 |
| 03/02/10 2:00 PM | Auto Sales | Feb | NA | 3.8M |
| 03/02/10 2:00 PM | Truck Sales | Feb | NA | 4.4M |
| 03/03/10 2:00 PM | Fed's Beige Book | Mar | NA | NA |
| 03/03/10 7:30 AM | Challenger Job Cuts YoY | Feb | NA | -70.4% |
| 03/03/10 8:15 AM | ADP Employment Change | Feb | -10K | -22K |
| 03/03/10 10:00 AM | ISM Services | Feb | 51.0 | 50.5 |
| 03/03/10 10:30 AM | Crude Inventories | 2/26 | NA | 3.03M |
| 03/04/10 8:30 AM | Initial Claims | 02/27 | 475K | 495K |
| 03/04/10 8:30 AM | Continuing Claims | 02/20 | NA | 4617K |
| 03/04/10 8:30 AM | Productivity-Rev. | Q4 | 6.2% | 6.2% |
| 03/04/10 8:30 AM | Unit Labor Costs | Q4 | -4.4% | -4.4% |
| 03/04/10 10:00 AM | Factory Orders | Jan | 1.2% | 1.0% |
| 03/04/10 10:00 AM | Pending Home Sales | Jan | 1.7% | 1.0% |
| 03/05/10 3:00 PM | Consumer Credit | Jan | -$3.8B | -$1.7B |
| 03/05/10 8:30 AM | Unemployment Rate | Feb | 9.8% | 9.7% |
| 03/05/10 8:30 AM | Nonfarm Payrolls | Feb | -20K | -20K |
| 03/05/10 8:30 AM | Hourly Earnings | Feb | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| 03/05/10 8:30 AM | Average Workweek | Feb | 33.7 | 33.9 |
Saturday, February 20, 2010
New Home Sales
New Home Sales statistics report is published by the United States Census Bureau on monthly basis. The report covers the number of sales of newly constructed residences in the United States of America and is considered as an economical indicator of the economy's health. The new Home Sales numbers are sensitive to the consumer income. As a rule, in growing economy when the consumers average income is growing, the number of newly constructed residences sales is growing. At the same time, a reversal down in New Home Sales report could serve as an early indicator of slow down in the economy and possibility of coming depression. Furthermore, the release of New Home Sales report may have significant impact on Wall Street.
GDP Estimates
Key economic data for the forth week (last week) of February 2010 starting February 23th, 2010. There are no economic reports on Monday February 22nd, 2010. Last week FED announcement of rate increase to 0.75% did not affect the sentiment on the stock market.
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 |
| 02/23/10 9:00 AM | Case-Shiller 20-city Index | Dec | -3.1% | -5.3% |
| 02/23/10 10:00 AM | Consumer Confidence | Feb | 55.0 | 55.9 |
| 02/24/10 10:00 AM | New Home Sales | Jan | 355K | 342K |
| 02/24/10 10:30 AM | Crude Inventories | 2/19 | NA | 3.08M |
| 02/25/10 8:30 AM | Initial Claims | 02/20 | 460K | 473K |
| 02/25/10 8:30 AM | Continuing Claims | 02/13 | 4570K | 4563K |
| 02/25/10 8:30 AM | Durable Orders | Jan | 1.5% | 0.3% |
| 02/25/10 10:00 AM | FHFA Housing Price Index | Dec | NA | 0.7& |
| 02/26/10 8:30 AM | GDP - Second Estimate | Q4 | 5.7% | 5.7% |
| 02/26/10 8:30 AM | GDP Deflator - Second Estimate | Q4 | 0.6% | 0.6% |
| 02/26/10 9:45 AM | Chicago PMI | Feb | 59.0 | 61.5 |
| 02/26/10 9:55 AM | U Michigan Consumer Sentiment - Final | Feb | 74.0 | 73.7 |
| 02/26/10 10:00 AM | Existing Home Sales | Jan | 5.50M | 5.45M |
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Building Permits
The Building Permits is a leading economic indicator tracked by U.S. Census Bureau that is used to track the housing industry. While the statistics is used by local governments and organizations to receive valuable information about local community, the data are used by the Census Bureau for annual creation of population estimates.
The Building Permits (also known as Constructions Permits) Statistics provides construction statistics on new privately-owned residential housing units authorized by building permits. The statistics data include number of buildings, units, and construction cost from new privately-owned residential building permits issued.
These Building Permits Statistics data are updated on monthly basis. In additional annual report is published as well.
The Building Permits statistics usually allows analyze and estimate possible development in the trend (decrease or increase) of construction, employment, financing and even furnishings. Because of that this statistics are often considered as a leading indicator of the economy.
Treasury Budget
Key economic data for the third week (last week) of February 2010 starting February 16th, 2010. This is a short week - only four trading session. On Monday February 15, 2010 the U.S. stock market will be closed due to the President's Day. This week is the options expiration week as well. On Friday February 20, 2010 U.S. February's options will expire. Keep in mind that starting from February 11, 2010 U.S. options have new symbols structure.
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 |
| 02/16/10 8:30 AM | Empire Manufacturing | Feb | 18.00 | 15.92 |
| 02/16/10 9:00 AM | Net Long-Term TIC Flows | Dec | $50.0B | $126.8B |
| 02/17/10 2:00 PM | Treasury Budget | Jan | -$46.0B | -$91.9B |
| 02/17/10 2:00 PM | Minutes of FOMC Meeting | 1/28 | ||
| 02/17/10 8:30 AM | Housing Starts | Jan | 580K | 557K |
| 02/17/10 8:30 AM | Building Permits | Jan | 615K | 653K |
| 02/17/10 8:30 AM | Export Prices ex-ag. | Jan | NA | 0.5% |
| 02/17/10 8:30 AM | Import Prices ex-oil | Jan | NA | 0.4% |
| 02/17/10 9:15 AM | Industrial Production | Jan | 0.8% | 0.6% |
| 02/17/10 9:15 AM | Capacity Utilization | Jan | 72.6% | 72.0% |
| 02/18/10 8:30 AM | Continuing Claims | 02/6 | 4500K | 4538K |
| 02/18/10 8:30 AM | Initial Claims | 02/13 | 430K | 440K |
| 02/18/10 8:30 AM | PPI | Jan | 0.8% | 0.2% |
| 02/18/10 8:30 AM | Core PPI | Jan | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| 02/18/10 10:00 AM | Leading Indicators | Jan | 0.5% | 1.1% |
| 02/18/10 10:00 AM | Philadelphia Fed | Feb | 17.0 | 15.2 |
| 02/18/10 11:00 AM | Crude Inventories | 2/12 | NA | 2.42M |
| 02/19/10 8:30 AM | CPI | Jan | 0.3% | 0.1% |
| 02/19/10 8:30 AM | Core CPI | Jan | 0.2% | 0.1% |
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Mich Sentiment
The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index (also known as Mich Sentiment) is almost identical to the Conference Board Consumer Confidence index. Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index is released twice a month. Preliminary release is scheduled at 10:00 ET on the second Friday of the month, and final release is scheduled at 10:00 ET on the fourth Friday of the month. The same as Conference Board index, the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index has two sub-indexes which cover expectations and current conditions. The expectations sub-index is used as a component of the Conference Board's Leading Indicators index.
The Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index is considered one of the foremost indicators of US consumer sentiment. The Consumer Sentiment Index has valued for its quick turnarounds. As a rule falling economy is accompanied by declining in consumer confidence levels and falling sentiment index is considered as an early indicator of an economic downturn.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Retail Sales
Key economic data for the second week of February 2010 starting February 8th, 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 |
| 02/09/10 10:00 AM | Wholesale Inventories | Dec | 0.6% | 1.5% |
| 02/10/10 2:00 PM | Treasury Budget | Jan | -$60.0B | -$91.9B |
| 02/10/10 8:30 AM | Trade Balance | Dec | -$35.0B | -$36.4B |
| 02/10/10 10:30 AM | Crude Inventories | 2/5 | NA | 2.32M |
| 02/11/10 8:30 AM | Initial Claims | 02/06 | NA | NA |
| 02/11/10 8:30 AM | Continuing Claims | 02/06 | NA | NA |
| 02/11/10 8:30 AM | Retail Sales | Jan | 0.4% | -0.3% |
| 02/11/10 8:30 AM | Retail Sales ex-auto | Jan | 0.4% | -0.2% |
| 02/11/10 10:00 AM | Business Inventories | Dec | 0.4% | 0.4% |
| 02/12/10 9:55 AM | Mich Sentiment | Feb | 74.8 | 74.4 |
