by Calculated Risk on 2/23/2022 09:00:00 PM

Thursday:
• At 8:30 AM ET, the initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released.  The consensus is for a decrease to 240 thousand from 248 thousand last week.

• Also, at 8:30 AM, Gross Domestic Product, 4th quarter 2021 (Second estimate). The consensus is that real GDP increased 7.0% annualized in Q4, up from the advance estimate of 6.9%.

• Also, at 8:30 AM, Chicago Fed National Activity Index for January. This is a composite index of other data.

• At 10:00 AM, New Home Sales for January from the Census Bureau. The consensus is that new home sales decreased to 807 thousand SAAR, down from 811 thousand in December.

• At 11:00 AM, the Kansas City Fed manufacturing survey for February

On COVID (focus on hospitalizations and deaths):

COVID Metrics
	Now	Week Ago	Goal
Percent fully Vaccinated	64.8%	---	≥70.0%1
Fully Vaccinated (millions)	215.1	---	≥2321
New Cases per Day3	79,539	133,392	≤5,0002
Hospitalized3	56,222	77,791	≤3,0002
Deaths per Day3	1,602	2,096	≤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 deaths reported.

New cases, hospitalizations and deaths are now declining.