Thursday: Trade Deficit, Unemployment Claims, Q4 Flow of Funds

With housing for sale inventory still low, I expect to see some upward revisions to 2013 house price forecasts. The consensus is for prices to increase about 3% this year. From Merrill Lynch tonight:

Paying homage to home prices. Our mortgage strategists and economists provide an upbeat assessment of the January CoreLogic release that showed US home prices rising nearly 10% annually (Jan-Jan). That leaves "substantial upside risk to our 2013 HPA forecast of 4.7%".

Thursday economic releases:
• At 8:30 AM ET, The initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released. The consensus is for claims to increase to 355 thousand from 344 thousand last week. This is pre "sequester", and unemployment claims might increase soon.

• Also at 8:30 AM, Trade Balance report for January from the Census Bureau. The consensus is for the U.S. trade deficit to increase to $43.0 billion in January from $38.5 billion in December.

• At 12:00 PM, Q4 Flow of Funds Accounts of the United States from the Federal Reserve will be released.

• At 3:00 PM, Consumer Credit for January from the Federal Reserve. The consensus is for credit to increase $15.0 billion in January.