by Calculated Risk on 1/27/2013 09:16:00 PM

This is related to my earlier post on Thresholds for QE, from Binyamin Appelbaum at the NY Times: At Fed, Nascent Debate on When to Slow Asset Buying

The looming question is how much longer the asset purchases will continue.

... the discussion already has begun to swing toward informal thresholds.

Mr. Rosengren said last year that the Fed should certainly continue the purchases until the unemployment rate declines at least below 7.25 percent.

James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ... [told] CNBC that he expected the unemployment rate to drop to near 7 percent by the end of the year and that it would then be appropriate for the Fed to consider suspending its program of asset purchases.

This discussion is just starting, and I don't expect any significant announcements after the FOMC meeting this week.

The Asian markets are mostly green tonight; the Shanghai Composite index is up 1%.

From CNBC: Pre-Market Data and Bloomberg futures: the S&P futures and DOW are flat (fair value).

Oil prices have moved up a little recently with WTI futures at $95.97 per barrel and Brent at $113.27 per barrel. Gasoline prices are up about 5 cents over the last 10 days.

Monday:
• At 8:30 AM ET, Durable Goods Orders for December from the Census Bureau. The consensus is for a 1.6% increase in durable goods orders.

• At 10:00 AM, the NAR will release their Pending Home Sales Index for December. The consensus is for a 0.3% decrease in the index.

• At 10:30 AM, the Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey for January will be released. This is the last of the regional surveys for January. The consensus is a decrease to 4.0 from 6.8 in December (above zero is expansion).

Weekend:
• Summary for Week Ending Jan 25th
• Schedule for Week of Jan 27th
• Thresholds for QE
• Me, Me, Me