Monday, April 23, 2012

The Week Ahead: Slow to Start, Then FOMC, GDP!

After two excruciatingly slow, sideways weeks, markets will finally get what they've ostensibly been waiting for: Wednesday's FOMC Announcement.  This one offers the full slate of festivities with the Bernanke press conference and the FOMC Member Forecasts. 
That means that the announcement itself is in the earlier time-slot at 12:30pm as opposed to 2:15pm.  The 5yr Note auction that would normally be at 1pm, is moved instead to 11:30am. 

Because of "all that," it's tough to consider how much attention we'd want to pay to any events before Wednesday afternoon.  Economic data and even the 5yr Auction would have to be pretty bizarre in order to have much of an impact on wherever the market wants to be trading before, during, and after the FOMC stuff. 

Thankfully, the data calendar is empty today, effectively giving us a free day to get geared up for the rest of the week.  There is a round of scheduled Fed "Twist" buying concluding at 11:00am in the 2036 to 2042 maturity range, but that's about it. 

Whereas the past week stood a good chance to be range-bound and sideways, the current week is much more of a wild card.  Be prepared for bigger moves in either direction.  On a final note, since we're basically saying "expect more volatility this week," remember that neither MBS or Rate Sheets care much for volatility.  In other words, be ready to act quickly.

Week Of Mon, Apr 23 2012 - Fri, Apr 27 2012
Time
Event
Period
Unit
Forecast
Prior
Actual
Tue, Apr 24
09:00 CaseShiller 20 mm SA
Feb
%
+0.2
0.0
--
09:00 CaseShiller 20 mm nsa
Feb
%
-0.6
-0.8
--
09:00 CaseShiller 20 yy
Feb
%
-3.4
-3.8
--
10:00 Monthly Home Price mm
Feb
%
--
0.0
--
10:00 New home sales-units mm
Mar
ml
.320
.313
--
10:00 Consumer confidence
Apr
--
70.3
70.8
--
13:00 2-Yr Note Auction
--
bl
35.0
--
--
Wed, Apr 25
07:00 Mortgage market index
w/e
--
--
725.4
--
07:00 Mortgage refinance index
w/e
--
--
3936.3
--
08:30 Durable goods
Mar
%
-1.5
+2.4
--
11:30 5-Yr Treasury Acution
--
bl
35.0
--
--
12:30 FOMC rate decision
no policy chng expected. all about verbiage
14:00 FOMC Member Forecasts
14:15 Bernanke Press Conference
will press "press" for QE clarity? Probably
Thu, Apr 26
08:30 Initial Jobless Claims
w/e
k
375k
386k
--
08:30 Continued jobless claims
w/e
ml
3.29
3.297
--
10:00 Pending sales change mm
Mar
%
+1.0
-0.5
--
13:00 7-Yr Note Auction
--
bl
29.0
--
--
Fri, Apr 27
08:30 GDP (Q1 2011 – Advance)
Q1
%
+2.5
+3.0
--
09:55 U.Mich sentiment
Apr
--
75.7
75.7
--
09:55 U Mich conditions
Apr
--
81.0
80.6
--
09:55 U.Mich expectation
Apr
--
72.5
72.5
--
mm: month over month | yy: year over year | qq: quarter over quarter
 (n)SA: (non) Seasonally Adjusted


Source:
autonews.com