by Calculated Risk on 12/14/2021 06:38:00 PM

Wednesday:
• At 7:00 AM ET, The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.

• At 8:30 AM, Retail sales for November will be released.  The consensus is for a 1.4% increase in retail sales.

• Also at 8:30 AM, The New York Fed Empire State manufacturing survey for December. The consensus is for a reading of 25.0, down from 30.9.

• At 10:00 AM, The December NAHB homebuilder survey. The consensus is for a reading of 84, up from 83. Any number above 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor.

• At 2:00 PM, FOMC Meeting Announcement. The FOMC is expected to announce a faster taper pace for asset purchases.

• Also at 2:00 PM, FOMC Forecasts This will include the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) participants' projections of the appropriate target federal funds rate along with the quarterly economic projections.

• At 2:30 PM, Fed Chair Jerome Powell holds a press briefing following the FOMC announcement.

And on COVID:

COVID Metrics
	Today	Week Ago	Goal
Percent fully Vaccinated	61.0%	---	≥70.0%1
Fully Vaccinated (millions)	202.5	---	≥2321
New Cases per Day3🚩	117,890	106,923	≤5,0002
Hospitalized3🚩	57,191	52,394	≤3,0002
Deaths per Day3🚩	1,147	1,095	≤502
1 Minimum to achieve "herd immunity" (estimated between 70% and 85%). 2my goals to stop daily posts, 37-day average for Cases, Currently Hospitalized, and Deaths 🚩 Increasing 7-day average week-over-week for Cases, Hospitalized, and Deaths ✅ Goal met.

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the daily (columns) and 7-day average (line) of positive tests reported.