The key reports this week are April Retail Sales, Housing Starts and Existing Home Sales.

For manufacturing, April Industrial Production, and the May NY and Philly Fed manufacturing surveys will be released.

Fed Chair Powell speaks on Tuesday.

Note: The Census Bureau is expected to release "National, State, and County housing units" from the 2020 Census sometime in May.

----- Monday, May 16th -----
8:30 AM: The New York Fed Empire State manufacturing survey for May. The consensus is for a reading of 17.0, down from 24.6.

----- Tuesday, May 17th -----
8:30 AM ET: Retail sales for April is scheduled to be released.  The consensus is for 0.8% increase in retail sales.

This graph shows retail sales since 1992. This is monthly retail sales and food service, seasonally adjusted (total and ex-gasoline).

Retail sales were up 0.7% in March.

9:15 AM: The Fed will release Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization for April.

This graph shows industrial production since 1967.

The consensus is for a 0.4% increase in Industrial Production, and for Capacity Utilization to increase to 78.5%.

10:00 AM: The May NAHB homebuilder survey. The consensus is for a reading of 75 down from 77 last month.  Any number above 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor.

2:00 PM: Discussion, Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell, Conversation with Nick Timiraos, At the Wall Street Journal Future of Everything Festival, New York, New York

----- Wednesday, May 18th -----
7:00 AM ET: The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.

8:30 AM ET: Housing Starts for April.

This graph shows single and total housing starts since 1968.

The consensus is for 1.773 million SAAR, down from 1.793 million SAAR in March.

During the day: The AIA's Architecture Billings Index for April (a leading indicator for commercial real estate).

----- Thursday, May 19th -----
8:30 AM: The initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released.  The consensus is for 210 thousand up from 203 thousand last week.

8:30 AM: the Philly Fed manufacturing survey for May. The consensus is for a reading of 16.7, down from 17.6.

10:00 AM: Existing Home Sales for April from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The consensus is for 5.62 million SAAR, down from 5.77 million.

The graph shows existing home sales from 1994 through the report last month.

----- Friday, May 20th -----
10:00 AM: State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) for April 2022