One last set of American indicators before Christmas

A few hours before Christmas, the trend should be quite calm in the financial markets again. For the form, the operators present will take an eye on the American indicators appearing on the agenda, but it is a safe bet that they will not react much. The news on the health front and the restrictive measures will influence them more.

In detail, five statistics are expected across the Atlantic: weekly jobless claims (consensus: 205,000), the new home sales in November (consensus: + 3.4%, to 770,000 units at an annualized rate), durable goods orders of the same month in preliminary data (+ 1.8% over one month), thefinal consumer confidence index in December as measured by the University of Michigan (consensus: 70.4) and consumer income and expenditure in November.

This is perhaps the number most likely to have an impact on the trend. After falling 1% in September, largely due to the elimination of federal unemployment benefits, incomes rebounded 0.5% in October and are expected to rise another 0.4% in November, according to the Bloomberg consensus. On the other hand, spending should be a little less dynamic (+ 0.6% over one month, against + 1.3% in October), many consumers having made their Christmas shopping earlier this year for fear of shortages. It will also be interesting to monitor the evolution of the household savings rate. Inflation exerts strong pressure on purchasing power, which cuts down on monthly savings capacity.