Investing.com - Here’s a preview of the top 3 things that could rock markets tomorrow.
1. Housing Demands Attention
The first real numbers about the U.S. housing market will come from the National Association of Realtors tomorrow, which will release its report on January existing home sales at 10 AM ET (15:00 GMT).
Forecasts compiled by Investing.com expect the report to show sales running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.01 million units, up 0.4% from December. The sales rate hit a rate of 5.87 million units in December 2017 and has moved lower.
One reason for the slide was higher mortgage rates in 2018. A bigger reason was pure affordability, a subject of some discussion at the recent Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Seattle, one of the hottest markets in 2017 and into 2018, suddenly saw sales and prices fall in the latter half of 2018. Sales cooled off in a large number of other markets as well.
Online real-estate brokerage Zillow Group (NASDAQ:ZG) will doubtless have comments on the question when it reports fourth-quarter results after Thursday's close. Analysts polled by Investing.com are expecting earnings of 2 cents a share on revenue of $351.2 million. A year ago, Zillow reported a loss of 53 cents on revenue of $282.3 million. Shares are up 10.5% this year after falling 23.3% in 2018.
Next Tuesday, the Census Bureau will report on housing starts and building permits for December. Construction on new residential homes (starts) is expected to dip to an annual rate of 1.245 million, while permits are forecast to drop to 1.28 million.
At 8:30 AM ET, the government will report the delayed December durable goods orders. Economists are predicting a rise of 0.8% for the month, with a core durable goods orders rise of 0.2%.
2. Crude Stockpiles Seen up 3 Million
The weekly oil inventories data arrive tomorrow, a day later than usual because of Monday’s Washington’s Birthday holiday.
The Energy Information Administration will report on U.S. inventories of crude, gasoline and distillates at 11:00 AM ET (16:00 GMT).
The market is looking for crude oil stockpiles to have risen by a little more than 3 million barrels for the most recent week, according to analysts’ forecasts compiled by Investing.com.
Oil prices are facing a tug-of-war of late as OPEC and OPEC-plus members continue to pledge cuts in supply, but expectations for more U.S. output from shale rise.
"(O)ur forecast of more subdued growth in demand in the coming months, coupled with persistently strong U.S. output, suggests that prices will fall back," Caroline Bain, chief commodities economist at Capital Economics, said.
The April West Texas Intermediate contract settled at $57.16 a barrel, up 71 cents.
3. Initial Jobless Claims Expected to Dip
The Labor Department will issue its weekly report on initial jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. ET (13:30 GMT) The consensus estimate for the week ended Feb. 16, compiled by Investing.com, is for 220,000 new claims, down from 239,000 a week earlier.
An upside number would surprise financial markets but confirm the Federal Reserve's decision in January to leave interest rates steady for the time time being.
Jobless claims have ranged from just under 200,000 a week to 260,000 since the end of 2017. That's a far cry from recession-bound 2009 when claims approached 700,000. They've been shrinking steadily ever since.