Markets today: Housing starts open a data-led Friday, with Michigan sentiment the afternoon marker

Housing data headlines Friday’s session, with June housing starts arriving at 8:30 a.m. ET at the front of the morning calendar and the preliminary University of Michigan consumer sentiment reading at 10:00 a.m. ET giving traders a second high-importance marker into the late morning.

On the calendar today

The 8:30 a.m. ET slot carries the bulk of the day’s data. Housing starts, one of the session’s two high-importance releases, is pencilled at 1.31 million (annualized) against a 1.177 million prior reading, while preliminary building permits are set at 1.40 million versus 1.41 million before. The accompanying month-over-month measures round out the housing picture: housing starts followed a -15.4% prior change and building permits a -0.9% prior change. The same window brings trade-price data, with import prices forecast at -0.7% month over month (previous 1.9%) and export prices at -0.4% (previous 1.3%).

At 9:15 a.m. ET, industrial production is forecast at 0.2% month over month against a 0.1% prior reading.

The day’s second high-importance print lands at 10:00 a.m. ET, when the preliminary Michigan consumer sentiment index is set at 51.0 versus a 49.5 prior reading.

Reporting today

No coverage-universe names are on the earnings docket for today’s session.

Backdrop

Stocks closed lower across the major averages on Thursday. The S&P 500 fell 0.5% to 7,533.77 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2% to 52,552.97, while the Nasdaq Composite led the declines with a 1.5% drop to 25,881.95. The Cboe Volatility Index rose to 18.13 and the 10-year Treasury yield settled at 4.55%, leaving the tape on the back foot heading into Friday’s data.

What to watch

• Housing at the open. Housing starts is the first of the day’s two high-importance releases and lands in the same 8:30 a.m. ET window as building permits and the import and export price figures — a cluster of prints hitting at once before the bell.
• Sentiment after the bell. The preliminary Michigan consumer sentiment reading at 10:00 a.m. ET is the session’s second high-importance marker, arriving after the equity market has opened.
• A light earnings slate. With no coverage-universe names reporting, the day’s focal points are the scheduled economic releases rather than corporate results.

As always, it is the reaction to these scheduled releases — not any single forecast — that tends to set the tone for the tape.

This is a general-market summary for information only — not investment advice, and not a recommendation regarding any security.