The last week was extremely poor on data from the United States as government agencies were closed. Now they have reopened and reports start to come to market participants. Some experts are worried that reports will be skewed and unreliable because of the government shutdown, but at least traders get some information about the state of the US economy. The first report this week was housing data that was not particularly good, allowing the euro to trim its losses versus the dollar.
Existing home sales slipped to the seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.29 million in September from the downwardly revised 5.39 million in August (5.48 million before the revision). The actual figure was slightly below the consensus forecast of 5.31 million. Home prices were increasing faster than income and this led to the decline of sales. (Event A on the chart.)
Crude oil inventories increased by 4.0 million barrels the week ending October 11 and are above the upper range for this time of year. The increase was above the analysts’ projection of 3.4 million, but below the previous week’s growth of 6.8 million. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 2.6 million barrels, but are near the top of the average range. (Event B on the chart.)
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