by Calculated Risk on 1/13/2022 08:16:00 PM

Friday:
• At 8:30 AM ET, Retail sales for December is scheduled to be released.  The consensus is for a 0.1% decrease in retail sales.

• At 9:15 AM, The Fed will release Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization for December. The consensus is for a 0.3% increase in Industrial Production, and for Capacity Utilization to increase to 77.0%.

• At 10:00 AM, University of Michigan's Consumer sentiment index (Preliminary for January).

And on COVID (focus on hospitalizations and deaths):

COVID Metrics
	Now	Week Ago	Goal
Percent fully Vaccinated	62.7%	---	≥70.0%1
Fully Vaccinated (millions)	208.2	---	≥2321
New Cases per Day3🚩	782,765	587,722	≤5,0002
Hospitalized3🚩	128,222	95,853	≤3,0002
Deaths per Day3🚩	1,729	1,263	≤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.

The 7-day average for new cases and hospitalizations are at record levels.

Fortunately, deaths are still only half the previous 7-day average record of 3,421 per day in January 2021.