by Calculated Risk on 10/09/2012 09:11:00 PM

On Wednesday:
• At 7:00 AM, The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the mortgage purchase applications index. Expect refinance activity to remain strong with low mortgage rates.

• At 10:00 AM, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for August will be released by the BLS. The number of job openings has generally been trending up.

• Also at 10:00 AM, the Monthly Wholesale Trade: Sales and Inventories report for August will be released. The consensus is for a 0.4% increase in inventories.

• At 2:00 PM, the Federal Reserve will release the "Beige Book". This is an informal review by the Federal Reserve Banks of current economic conditions in their Districts. This might show some slight improvement. Some analysts will be looking for concerns about Europe or the "fiscal cliff".