US markets will be closed on Monday for the Presidents' Day observance, leaving a shortened four-day US workweek. There is a moderate amount of economic data and it is a busy week for Fed officials. The speech contents will be weighed in advance of the next FOMC meeting on March 15, but there will be no major central bank announcements next week. Data on the housing market should be the most important to the majority of markets, but there is also a fair amount for the factory sector, labour market and on growth.
The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index for February on Tuesday will be the first release after the Conference Board announced the new survey on Monday, February 14. The Conference Board provided three months of data based on the Nielsen Company survey and revised the indexes up to 57.8 in November, 63.4 in December and 65.6 in January.
The final Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for February is set for Friday. The preliminary index reading was 75.1, up about 1 point from the 74.2 in January. Consumer confidence generally seems to be on an upswing, but the path is uneven.
New orders for durable goods in January at are due on Thursday and it could well be another soft month based on weak orders for civilian aircraft. However, there may be some holdover from December's aircraft orders that did not show up in that month's data that could make January look better. Also, orders for motor vehicles were likely stronger.
There are two more February surveys of manufacturing from Fed District Banks during the week. The Richmond Fed will report on Tuesday and the Kansas City Fed's numbers will be released on Thursday. So far the data from New York and Philadelphia were ...read more
