by Calculated Risk on 2/02/2019 08:11:00 AM

Special Note on Government Opening: Now that the Government is open, some of the data releases that were postponed are starting to be released. The BEA and Census will provide further release dates soon (like for Q4 GDP).

The key reports scheduled for this week are the trade deficit and January vehicle sales.

----- Monday, Feb 4th -----
All day: Light vehicle sales for January. The consensus is for light vehicle sales to be 17.0 million SAAR in January, down from 17.2 million in December (Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate).

This graph shows light vehicle sales since the BEA started keeping data in 1967. The dashed line is the November sales rate (The BEA hasn't released December sales yet).


----- Tuesday, Feb 5th -----
10:00 AM: the ISM non-Manufacturing Index for January.

----- Wednesday, Feb 6th -----
7:00 AM ET: The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.

8:30 AM: Trade Balance report for November from the Census Bureau.

This graph shows the U.S. trade deficit, with and without petroleum, through the most recent report. The blue line is the total deficit, and the black line is the petroleum deficit, and the red line is the trade deficit ex-petroleum products.

The consensus is the trade deficit to be $53.9 billion.  The U.S. trade deficit was at $55.5 billion in October.

7:00 PM: Fed Chair Jerome Powell, Brief Opening Remarks, At the Conversation with the Chairman: A Teacher Town Hall Meeting, Washington, D.C.

----- Thursday, Feb 7th -----
8:30 AM: The initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released. The consensus is for 225 thousand initial claims, down from 253 thousand the previous week.

3:00 PM: Consumer Credit from the Federal Reserve.

----- Friday, Feb 8th -----
No major economic releases scheduled.