Market movers today
US consumer confidence for November (Conference Board) is expected to rise slightly following a steep decline in October partly related to the government shutdown. Apart from normalisation following the shutdown, lower gasoline prices and strong equity markets are giving short-term support to sentiment.
While US housing starts are delayed until 18 December, building permits for October will be released today. Permits have been softening over the past four months following the rise in mortgage rates. We look for a decline in October of 0.5% m/m.
US house prices from both FHFA and Case/Shiller are also released today. Price gains have weakened a bit recently. We look for this pattern to continue with house prices still rising but at a more moderate rate going forward.
ECB's Mersch speaks in Frankfurt. Mersch is normally in the hawkish camp, but has recently also expressed openness to further stimulus if necessary.
The UK will hold a Treasury Committee hearing on the Inflation Report. We expect the BoE to repeat that the unexpectedly strong growth momentum is the reason that the MPC lowered its unemployment rate projection and that there could be a case for not raising the Bank Rate immediately at the 7% unemployment threshold.
In Sweden, we expect PPI to remain muted.
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