Economic calendar: US housing data and Powell in focus

Summary:

• Hungarian central bank is expected to keep rates unchanged
• US now home sales and consumer confidence the most important releases this afternoon
• Fed’s Powell to take the floor this evening (more central bankers on the agenda too)

1:00 pm BST - Hungarian central bank decision: The Hungarian central bank is expected to keep borrowing costs unchanged at today’s meeting with the main rate at 0.9%. Nevertheless, there are still some reasons behind further tightening of monetary policy there as core inflation is hovering around 4% (above the 3% target), a dynamic of house price rises remains elevated. However, given the latest turnaround made by other central banks the Hungarian central bank may have a hard nut to crack. All eyes should be on the statement. 

3:00 pm BST - US new home sales (for May) and Conference Board index (for June): The US housing market has been among the weakest spots in the economy, however, it could change or even it has already begun changing given a massive decline in mortgage rates there since the beginning of this year. Moreover, in May we got a solid reading regarding existing home sales. The consensus for today points to 684k compared to 673k in April. In addition to that, consumer confidence measured by the Conference Board index is forecast to have decreased to 131 from 134.1.

6:00 pm BST - Fed’s Powell to give a speech on economic outlook and monetary policy, his speech will be followed by the Q&A

Other central bankers:

• 8:05 am BST - RBA’s Bullock

• 8:15 am BST - ECB’s Guindos

• 1:45 pm BST - Fed’s Williams

• 5:00 pm BST - Fed’s Bostic

• 6:15 pm BST - ECB’s Coeure

• 8:30 pm BST - Fed’s Barkin

The USDHUF is approaching its important support placed somewhat above 282 ahead of the Hungarian central bank decision. Source: xStation5