by Calculated Risk on 12/17/2013 08:21:00 PM

The long delayed housing starts report will be released tomorrow for September, October and November.

Starts are a key report, but the big story for the day will be the FOMC announcement, projections, and press briefing. The consensus is the FOMC will wait until early 2014 to start to reduce asset purchases, but it is possible that they will start the "taper" at this meeting.

Wednesday:
• 7:00 AM ET, The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.

• At 8:30 AM, the Census Bureau will release Housing Starts for September, October and November. Total housing starts were at 891 thousand (SAAR) in August. Single family starts were at 628 thousand SAAR in August. The consensus is for total housing starts to increase to 952 thousand (SAAR) in November.

• During the day: The AIA's Architecture Billings Index for November (a leading indicator for commercial real estate).

• At 2:00 PM, the FOMC Meeting Announcement will be released. It is possible the FOMC will start to reduce QE purchases following this meeting.

• Also at 2:00 PM, the FOMC projections will be released. This will include the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) participants' projections of the appropriate target federal funds rate along with the quarterly economic projections.

• At 2:30 PM, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will hold a press briefing following the FOMC announcement.