Schedule for Week of December 18, 2022

The key economic reports this week are Housing Starts, New Home Sales, Existing Home Sales, the 3rd estimate of Q3 GDP, and November Personal income and outlays.

----- Monday, December 19th -----
10:00 AM: The December NAHB homebuilder survey. The consensus is for a reading of 33, unchanged from 33. Any number below 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as poor than good.

----- Tuesday, December 20th -----
8:30 AM: Housing Starts for November.

This graph shows single and multi-family housing starts since 1968.

The consensus is for 1.400 million SAAR, down from 1.425 million SAAR.

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

10:00 AM: Existing Home Sales for November from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The consensus is for 4.20 million SAAR, down from 4.43 million.

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

Housing economist Tom Lawler expects the NAR to report sales of 4.16 million SAAR for November.

----- Thursday, December 22nd -----
8:30 AM: The initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released.  The consensus is for 225 thousand initial claims, up from 211 thousand last week.

8:30 AM: Gross Domestic Product, 3rd quarter 2022 (Third estimate). The consensus is for real GDP at 2.9% annualized, unchanged from the second estimate of 2.9%.

8:30 AM: Chicago Fed National Activity Index for November. This is a composite index of other data.

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

----- Friday, December 23rd -----
8:30 AM: Durable Goods Orders for November.  The consensus is for a 0.1% increase..

8:30 AM: Personal Income and Outlays for November. The consensus is for a 0.2% increase in personal income, and for a 0.2% increase in personal spending. And for a 0.3% increase in the PCE prices index, and the Core PCE price index to increase 0.2%.  PCE prices are expected to be up 5.7% YoY, and core PCE prices up 4.7% YoY.

10:00 AM: New Home Sales for November from the Census Bureau.

This graph shows New Home Sales since 1963. The dashed line is the sales rate for last month.

The consensus is for 595 thousand SAAR, down from 632 thousand in October.

10:00 AM: University of Michigan's Consumer sentiment index (Final for December).

10:00 AM: State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) for November 2022