Today we have the US building permits and housing starts on the calendar. They will be released in a few minutes together with the import prices report. Later on, the University of Michigan (UoM) consumer sentiment figures will be released, although these are mild data releases.

You can rarely see these numbers move the markets, unless they are off expectations by quite some distance. Today though, we might see a surprise move triggered by this data.

The Inflation

On Wednesday, the US inflation numbers were really great and the US Dollar jumped higher, rightfully. But, it quickly reversed and today it is 200 pips down from where it was before the inflation report came out.

So, the market is seriously thinking of a reversal after a year of downtrend for the USD and the inflation numbers gave us a taste of that. But, forex traders are still scared of the big downtrend.

The Building Sector

That will change if the US data picks up in the coming weeks. Inflation is turning higher after remaining still for quite some time. If today’s building and consumer sentiment numbers are positive, then we might see the reverse begin today, since traders don’t want to miss out.

Building permits, housing starts and consumer sentiment are not the most important reports, but the situation has built up, that anything can spark a reverse or a major pullback. I will be watching this data to see if we can get some decent numbers.