New Home Sales for December fell by 7.6% to a 342,000 annual pace, following a 370,000 pace in November , revised from 355,000. Over the year New Home Sales are down 8.6% from 374,000 in December of 2008. The median sales price was $221,300. The estimate of new houses for sale at the end of December was 231,000, representing a supply of 8.1 months at the current sales rate.
Crude inventories are expected today at 10:30 AM EST. For the week ending January 15, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories had decreased by 0.4 million barrels from the previous week to 330.6 million barrels and were above the upper limit of the average range for that time of year. U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 13.8 million barrels per day during this period, 181 thousand barrels per day below the previous week’s average. U.S. crude oil imports were averaging 8.5 million barrels per day, down 355 thousand barrels per day from the previous week.
The FOMC Policy Statement will be released today at 2:15 PM EST, which will conclude the 2 day meeting of the Board of Governors. The topic for discussion is the Fed’s Beige Book, which indicated that while economic activity remains at a low level, conditions have improved modestly. Ten of the twelve districts noted some increased activity or improvement in conditions, while the remaining two reported mixed conditions. In the last policy statement released on December 16, the FOMC had decided to maintain the federal funds target rate within a range of 0 to 0.25%.
Upcoming Releases
New Home Sales (01/27 at 10:00 AM EST)
Crude Inventories (01/27 at 10:30 AM EST)
FOMC Policy Statement (01/27 at 2:15 PM EST)
Initial Claims (01/28 at 8:30 AM EST)
