Schedule for Week of October 18, 2020

The key economic reports this week are September Housing Starts and Existing Home sales.

----- Monday, October 19th -----
8:00 AM: Discussion, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, Cross-Border Payments and Digital Currencies, At the International Monetary Fund Annual Meeting - Panel on Cross-Border Payments

10:00 AM: The October NAHB homebuilder survey. The consensus is for a reading of  83, unchanged from 83 in September. Any number above 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor.

----- Tuesday, October 20th -----
8:30 AM: Housing Starts for September.

This graph shows single and total housing starts since 1968.

The consensus is for 1.450 million SAAR, up from 1.416 million SAAR.

10:00 AM: State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) for September 2020

----- Wednesday, October 21st -----
7:00 AM ET: The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.

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

2:00 PM: the Federal Reserve Beige Book, an informal review by the Federal Reserve Banks of current economic conditions in their Districts.

----- Thursday, October 22nd -----
8:30 AM: The initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released. The consensus is initial claims decreased to 860 thousand from 898 thousand last week.

10:00 AM: Existing Home Sales for September from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The consensus is for 6.25 million SAAR, up from 6.00 million in August.

The graph shows existing home sales from 1994 through the report last month.

11:00 AM: the Kansas City Fed manufacturing survey for October.

----- Friday, October 23rd -----
No major economic releases scheduled.