by Calculated Risk on 3/14/2017 07:01:00 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 February will be released.  The consensus is for 0.2% increase in retail sales in February.

• Also at 8:30 AM, The Consumer Price Index for February from the BLS. The consensus is for 0.1% increase in CPI, and a 0.2% increase in core CPI.

• Also at 8:30 AM, The New York Fed Empire State manufacturing survey for March. The consensus is for a reading of 15.7, down from 18.7.

• At 10:00 AM, The March NAHB homebuilder survey. The consensus is for a reading of  66, up from 65 in February. Any number above 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor.

• Also at 10:00 AM, Manufacturing and Trade: Inventories and Sales (business inventories) report for January.  The consensus is for a 0.3% increase in inventories.

• At 2:00 PM, FOMC Meeting Announcement. The FOMC is expected to increase the Fed Funds rate 25 bps at this meeting.

• 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 Janet Yellen holds a press briefing following the FOMC announcement