by Calculated Risk on 12/15/2021 07:48:00 PM

Thursday:
• At 8:30 AM ET, The initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released.  The consensus is for 200 thousand initial claims, up from 184 thousand last week.

• Also at 8:30 AM, Housing Starts for November. The consensus is for 1.570 million SAAR, up from 1.520 million SAAR.

• Also at 8:30 AM, the Philly Fed manufacturing survey for December. The consensus is for a reading of 27.0, down from 39.0.

• At 9:15 AM, The Fed will release Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization for November. The consensus is for a 0.7% increase in Industrial Production, and for Capacity Utilization to increase to 76.8%.

• At 11:00 AM, the Kansas City Fed manufacturing survey for December.

And on COVID:

COVID Metrics
	Today	Week Ago	Goal
Percent fully Vaccinated	61.1%	---	≥70.0%1
Fully Vaccinated (millions)	202.8	---	≥2321
New Cases per Day3	117,950	121,889	≤5,0002
Hospitalized3🚩	49,594	44,777	≤3,0002
Deaths per Day3🚩	1,143	1,122	≤502
1 Minimum to achieve "herd immunity" (estimated between 70% and 85%). 2my goals to stop daily posts, 37-day average for Cases, Currently Hospitalized, and Deaths 🚩 Increasing 7-day average week-over-week for Cases, Hospitalized, and Deaths ✅ Goal met.

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the daily (columns) and 7-day average (line) of positive tests reported.