On tap for Friday: February.........>

US DATA PREVIEW: On tap for Friday: February personal income; Mar MNI Chicago

PMI; Feb new home sales; Mar Michigan sentiment index. 

- Morgan Stanley economists say "nominal personal spending is set to rebound

0.4% in January, not quite fully reversing its 0.5% decline in December.

Incorporating this month's CPI and PPI units, our forecast for January core PCE

inflation is 0.15%M, which would hold the year-over-year rate at 1.9%. Headline

inflation should rise 0.02%, lowering the year-over-year rate to 1.4% from

1.7%."

- On new home sales, Nomura economists expects the number to drop by 1.2% MoM

"to an annualized pace of 600k in February. New home sales remained weak in

January, falling 6.9% from the previous month. In February, we think that the

sales activity likely remained soft. The current sales activity index, measured

by the NAHB home builder survey, improved modestly in February but remained at a

relatively low level compared to 2018. In addition, the volume of mortgage

applications declined in the month after spiking in January following declines

in long-term interest rates."