By Kasra Kangarloo

WASHINGTON (MNI) – The week ahead features housing sales data,
along with minutes of the last meeting of the Federal Open Market
Committee.

July existing home sales and new home sales, to be released
Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. ET and Thursday at 10:00 a.m. ET, respectively,
are both expected to show modest increases over the month of July.

Home sales have been somewhat inconsistent over the past few
months, even as both the National Association of Home Builders’
confidence survey and permit applications for housing construction have
continued to improve. Both reports jumped to multi-year highs in the
latest data, which has created an interesting dichotomy in the market —
supplies have started to ramp up enthusiastically, while demand (home
sales) still hasn’t shown many signs of an explosive comeback. Maybe
there’s an appetite for home sales just waiting in the wings.

The minutes of the last FOMC meeting will be released Wednesday at
2:00 p.m. ET, and could at least shed some light on the committee’s
views of the U.S. economy. Markets have long been hoping and praying for
additional monetary stimulus. Though committee members say otherwise,
conventional wisdom holds that further action will have to wait until
after the November election.

Durable goods orders have lately been running weak, in line with
what could be a slowdown in the nation’s manufacturing sector, evidenced
by the slump in the last two months’ manufacturing surveys by the
Institute of Supply Managers.

The July durable goods report, to be released Friday at 8:30 a.m.
ET, is expected to post modest improvement.

Jobless claims have been under 370,000 for two straight weeks in
August and are expected to post a third week, which could set the stage
for another semi-strong employment report. A range closer to 350,000,
however, would be needed for job growth that could materially affect the
unemployment rate, which has been stuck above 8.0%.

Initial jobless claims will be released Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Other data to be released over the week include the July Chicago
Federal Reserve National Activity Index on Monday at 8:30 a.m. ET, the
preliminary August Markit U.S. purchasing managers index on Thursday at
9:00 a.m. ET, and the Mortgage Bankers Association’s mortgage
applications index on Wednesday at 7:00 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve speakers are listed below:

Atlanta Federal Reserve President Dennis Lockhart will speak in
Atlanta on the U.S. economic outlook and its implications for Latin
America on Tuesday at 8:45 a.m. ET.

Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans will speak at a
press briefing in Beijing on Wednesday at 11:30 p.m. ET.

— Kasra Kangarloo is a Washington reporter for Need to Know News.

** MNI Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

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