Housing In Focus Over Next Couple Weeks: Numerous Data Points, Homebuilder Earnings

The next couple of weeks will be a critical period for the U.S. housing market. There are several potential data and earnings catalysts coming up in the next 10 days.

On March 28, the National Association of Realtors reports its Pending Home Sales number for the month of February. Last month, sales declined 2.5 percent month-over month, and investors are hoping for a February bounce-back.

On March 29, the S&P/ Case-Shiller home price number for January is released. December’s number came in flat month-over-month but up 5.7 percent year-over-year.

On March 30, the latest MBA Mortgage Applications number will be released for the week ending March 25. The most recent composite index number was down 3.3 percent week-over-week.

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In addition to housing-specific data, investors will be watching Janet Yellen’s speech and Consumer Confidence numbers on March 29, Jobless Claims on March 31 and Employment and ISM Manufacturing numbers on April 1 for a big picture view of the health of the U.S. economy.

Homebuilder Lennar Corporation LEN will be releasing its Q4 earnings on March 29. Wall Street is predicting EPS of $0.52 on revenue of $1.84 billion. KB Home KBH was up 6 percent Thursday after reporting a big earnings beat.

So far this year, the SPDR S&P Homebuilders (ETF) XHB is down 4.8 percent.

Disclosure: the author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.