Housing starts were very firm in the April report (1143K vs. est. 1064K), marking a strong bounce after pent up activity through a difficult winter. As the US strategists point out, what’s also important is that this lift does not look ready to fade next month as building permits have continued to march steadily higher suggesting there is a decent amount of activity in the pipeline. Tonight we get the FOMC Minutes for the April 29 meeting. Recall the Fed did a good job of making the April press statement a non-event by simply marking-to-market as many expected. They described Q1 weakness as a one-off rather than the beginning of a trend and looked past the March weakness in NFP. “We think tonight’s Minutes will reflect these sentiments and should be consistent with a September start to tightening”,said RBC Capital Markets in a report on Wednesday.
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