by Calculated Risk on 3/16/2022 08:55:00 PM

Thursday:
• At 8:30 AM ET, Housing Starts for February. The consensus is for 1.695 million SAAR, up from 1.638 million SAAR.

• Also at 8:30 AM, The initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released.  The consensus is for a decrease to 225 thousand from 227 thousand last week.

• Also at 8:30 AM, the Philly Fed manufacturing survey for March. The consensus is for a reading of 15.0, down from 16.0.

• At 9:15 AM, The Fed will release Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization for February. The consensus is for a 0.5% increase in Industrial Production, and for Capacity Utilization to increase to 77.9%.

On COVID (focus on hospitalizations and deaths):

COVID Metrics
	Now	Week Ago	Goal
Percent fully Vaccinated	65.3%	---	≥70.0%1
Fully Vaccinated (millions)	216.8	---	≥2321
New Cases per Day3	30,934	36,852	≤5,0002
Hospitalized3	20,780	29,017	≤3,0002
Deaths per Day3	1,107	1,153	≤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 still declining.