Fewer Market Moving Events Lined-Up For This Week

Last week, the US Dollar performance was divergent against other major currencies, with commodity currencies (AUD, NZD and CAD) and JPY weakening against the US Dollar while EUR and GBP gaining against the greenback. The US Dollar’s mixed performance was lead by  increasing Fed taper concerns after the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s October meeting, released on Wednesday last week, indicated improving US labor market conditions and that the central bank might be considering to scale back the pace of its bond purchases sooner. Nevertheless, the US Dollar Index (I.USDX), which measures US Dollar against other major currencies, registered a marginal weekly decline.

Investors will now focus on some key housing data, consumer confidence and durable goods orders from the upcoming week’s US economic calendar. Here is an outlook on the important events lined-up for this week.

Housing Data – Key US housing data starts with the release of Pending Home Sales for the month of October, scheduled on Monday, released by National Association of Realtors. In September, pending home sales dropped unexpectedly by 5.6%. Analysts are now expecting pending home sales to rebound sharply and register a gain of 2.2% in the month of October.

Due to the US government shutdown, the US Commerce Department is scheduled to release September and October’s Building Permits and Housing Starts data simultaneously on Tuesday. Building permits is expected to show the number of permits in the month of October rose to a 934,000 annualized pace after rising to 940,000 in September. Meanwhile, housing starts in October are expected to rise slightly to an annual pace of 921,000 from an expected rise of 915,000 annualized pace in the month of September.

Consumer Confidence – The Conference Board (CB) is scheduled to released its Consumer Confidence Index for the month of November on Tuesday. In October the US CB Consumer Confidence Index fell short of consensus estimates and declined sharply to 71.2 from 79.7 in September. The index is now projected to rebound slightly to 72.2 for the month of November.

Durable Goods Orders – Other important economic data from the US, scheduled for release in the up-coming week, include durable goods orders for the month of October and is scheduled for release on Wednesday. In September, durable goods orders surged 3.7%, driven by surge in volatile aircraft orders, while core durable goods, that excludes transportation items, fell 0.2%. For the month of October, durable goods orders are expected to turn negative 1.5% and core durable goods are expected to have picked up somewhat and anticipated to show a rise of 0.5%.

Dominant UK economic data from the upcoming week’s UK economic calendar features the release of second estimate of the third quarter GDP figure, scheduled for release on Wednesday. The preliminary release of the Q3 GDP data indicated accelerating UK economic recovery, with GDP expanding by 0.8% from a revised growth of 0.7% in the previous quarter. The second estimate of the third quarter growth rate is expected to remain at 0.8%.

Important German data from the upcoming week’s Euro-Zone economic calendar features GfK German Consumer Climate and German Unemployment Change. After declining from 7.1 in September to 7.0 in October, the Gfk German consumer sentiment, scheduled for release on Wednesday, is forecasted to rise to 7.1 in November. Meanwhile, German unemployment, which has been increasing for three consecutive month till September, is scheduled for release on Thursday and is expected to remain unchanged for the month of October.

• With a relatively quieter global economic calendar, few of the important US economic data could provide some momentum in the Forex market. Each better-than-expected incoming US economic data reassures optimistic view about the health of the US economy and momentum in the economic recovery. Stronger data, coupled with the lingering concerns that the Fed might scale back its monetary stimulus, could strengthen the US Dollar against other major currencies.

Original Article: Admiral Markets