In March, US housing starts declined 8.8%. They are expected to have declined further in April. According to Societe Generale's research report, housing starts in the US are likely to have dropped by further 3% last month. In March, single family permits declined 1.2%, whereas multi-family permits dropped by almost 19% to their lowest level since February 2015.
Since the fourth quarter of 2015, multi-family starts have been declining. In the summer, multi-family starts had elevated that were due to increase in the Northeast. But excluding the Northeast, the multi-family starts have been trending downwards.
“Given the drop in the permits data in March, we look for a modest drop in starts”, added Societe Generale.
Meanwhile, the US industrial production data has been disappointing since mid-2014. Moreover, the data for February and March have been quite the same.
“Following consecutive -0.6% prints, we expect industrial production to improve by 0.1%”, said Societe Generale.
Strong production of auto parts and motor vehicles might boost manufacturing by 0.1%. In the mean time, electric and gas utilities are unlikely to provide a strong report as temperatures throughout the US have normalized. Continues fall in the mining sector is expected to halt for a brief period of time. But capacity utilization is expected to continue declining.
