Stocks are looking for another positive open after the benchmark S&P 500 climbed 1.80% yesterday.
One hour before the open, futures on the Dow are up 34 points to 10,275 while the S&P 500 looks to open 5.10 points higher at 1,098.30.
Commodities are mixed, however. WTI Crude oil is up just 33 cents to $77.34 per barrel and Spot Gold is off 13 cents to $1,119.32.
Meantime, the dollar is trading slightly higher (just below the 80 mark) and Treasuries are a bit weaker, according to analysts at BMO.
Key Events Today:
8:30 ― Housing Starts are expected to start the new decade with sales moving up from a pace of 557k to 580k. In the prior month sales dropped 4.0%, erasing some of the 10.7% advance in November.
“Housing starts in the previous month of December took a hit, in part because of unusually cold and wet weather, so we expect a bounce back in January,” said analysts from IHS Global Insight, who noted that while “builders remain pessimistic ... they are nonetheless ramping up production.”
Taking a longer view, Ellen Zentner from BTMU adds that ,“thanks to the low level of inventories, builders will be playing ‘catch-up’ for most of 2010 and therefore we expect housing starts to rise by about 33% over the year.” She also said that expected improvement in the job market this spring “will help propel the housing recovery as we head into the prime home buying season.”
9:15 ― Expect Industrial Production to be strong in January, marking the seventh straight month of growth. The consensus looks for a 0.8% advance following the healthy 0.6% gains in the prior two months, with forecasts ranging from +0.4% to 1.0%. The optimism in based on previous reports in addition to anecdotal evidence from regional manufacturing reports as well as the nationwide ISM index.
“Production levels are forecasted to post a year-over-year increase for the first time since March 2008,” note economists from BBVA. “The additional increase in activity could indicate that demand is continuing to pick-up early in 2010. In particular, industrial production of high tech goods is expected to post its second consecutive year-over-year increase, which would point to further recovery in non-residential investment in equipment and software in 1Q10.”
2:00 ― Since the last FOMC meeting, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke gave a significant speech on the central bank’s planned exit strategy, which means analysis of the prior FOMC meeting may not be too important. Still, the FOMC Minutes may give new insight to the bank’s economic and policy outlooks, and analysts will looking for any comments related to the Fed’s purchases of mortgage-backed securities.
“Comments should generally be more upbeat given the modest upgrade in the description of activity in the FOMC statement,” write analysts from Nomura. “We expect officials to note the above-trend growth rate in Q4, the improvement in capital goods investment, and a further easing of financial conditions.”
Economists from BBVA added: “Although the economy continues to improve, significant slack remains, which will warrant maintaining the current target fed funds rate and the ‘extended period of time’ language.”
Later today the Treasury Department will release foreclosure prevention data for January 2010.
