Market Analysis

The bond market is flat this morning.  This week could produce more volatility though as investors await the post-meeting statement Federal Reserve on Wednesday (their last meeting for 2009) and digest housing starts numbers on Wednesday and weekly initial jobless claims on Thursday.   Below is a recap of the economic calendar for this week:

Monday, December 14, 2009

No economic reports released

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Nov. Producer Price Index - expected up 1.0% vs Oct up .3%.  Core rate, excluding food and energy, expected up .2% vs Oct down .6%.

Nov. Industrial Production &  Capacity Utilization - production expected up .6% vs .1% increase in Oct and capacity utilization expected up to 71.2% vs 70.7% in Oct.

Dec. Empire State Manufacturing Survey - expected 25.0 Index vs 23.51 in November.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Nov. Consumer Price Index - expected up .4% vs Oct up .3%.  Core rate, excluding food and energy, expected up .1% vs Oct up .2%.

Nov. Housing Starts & Building Permits - starts expected up 9.6% (compared to an Oct number that had fallen more than expected) and permits expected up 3.4%.

Fed releases post-meeting statement - analysts will be looking for direction on short term rates and also any hints regarding the Federal Reserve's mortgage-backed security purchase program which is set to expire in March 2010.  If the Fed modifies their "extended period" language for the time period during which short term rates will be at or near 0%, then rates would most likely move up.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Initial weekly jobless claims - expected down 9,000 vs last week up 17,000.

Nov. Leading Indicators - expected up .7% vs Oct up .3%

Dec Philadelphia Fed Survey - index expected to be 16.5 vs Oct 16.7.

Friday, December 18, 2009

No economic reports released