Data risk will be small and confined to US housing indicators

Data risk will be small and confined to housing indicators with housing starts (Tuesday) and existing home sales (Thursday) ahead. Homes newly placed under construction are trending around the highest level since 2007 but remain a far cry from the 2005-06 peak of the cycle. 

There is a similar story to be told in the resale market, although resale volumes recently retreated from a high point. It's not clear how to read underlying momentum in housing markets at this point given wicked volatility in weekly mortgage purchase applications; after a massive surge two weeks ago, applications plunged to their lowest since March. 

This was probably driven by new mortgage disclosure rules that brought forward application processing in anticipation of the changes, only to watch applications plunge thereafter and leaving the two-week trend that smoothes out such influences roughly unchanged. We'll need more application tallies before drawing any further inferences.