Today's Economic Events

Factory orders, auto sales, and the FOMC minutes…There is a POMO today, and each day henceforth until next Wednesday when the new POMO schedule is announced.
 
10:00: Factory orders for Nov….a small setback?  With durable goods orders reported down 1.3%, it is likely we will also see a small drop in total factory orders, roughly half of which are for durable goods.  We should also see some moderation in the rate of inventory accumulation from the 1% average pace of September and October.
 median forecast (of 51) -0.1%, ranging from -0.7% to +1.1%; last -0.9%.
 
Late morning/early afternoon: Lightweight vehicle sales for Dec… grinding slowly higher? Anecdotal reports from the manufacturers suggest a slight increase from the November sales rate, though mainly in foreign vehicles.
For total sales: GS: 12.4 million; median forecast (of 39): 12.3mm, ranging from 12mm to 12.5mm; last: 12.26mm.
For domestic: Median forecast (of 16): 9.2mm, ranging from 9.0mm to 9.48mm; last 9.27mm.
 
14:00: Minutes to the Dec 14 FOMC meeting…as boring as the statement?  The only surprise in the statement was the tepid nature of the upgrade in the committee’s assessment of economic conditions.  We’ll look for color on this in today’s release of the minutes.

17:00: ABC consumer comfort index…back into the doldrums?  This index failed to crack its -41 resistance level as it fell back to -44 last week.  The only sense of progress over the past thirty-some months in this most recalcitrant of confidence indexes is that it is no longer testing the -54 lower end of that range.

via Goldman Sachs

Comments

[Boilermaker]

....and....PRESTO, futures back up to their normal +40 starting point.

[T Rex]

Home land security should keep an on ABC consumer comfort index…