Options Trading News

Today's economic calendar features a wide array of data, including mortgage applications, housing starts, oil inventories, and the Federal Reserve's meeting minutes.

The day begins with MBA mortgage-purchase applications at 7 a.m. ET. There are no projections for this report, which came in at 1.7 percent at last reading.

Housing starts will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Analysts are expecting April starts to come in at 690,000, within a range of 641,000 to 730,000. March's figure was 654,000.

Permits are projected at 725,000, a decline from March's 747,000. Estimates range from 710,000 to 777,000.

Industrial production will be reported at 8:30 a.m. ET as well. The consensus forecast calls for a monthly change of 0.5 percent, up from the previous reading of zero. Estimates range from zero to 0.9 percent.

The capacity utilization rate is expected at 79 percent, up slightly from the previous reading of 78.6 percent. The range of estimates is 78.6 percent to 79.2 percent.

Manufacturing is expected to show a monthly change of 0.7 percent, compared with the previous -0.2 percent. Estimates range from 0.2 percent to 0.8 percent.

The weekly EIA petroleum inventories will be reported at 10:30 a.m. ET. The last reading was 3.652 million barrels of crude oil.

St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard will speak at 12:30 p.m. ET, followed by the Federal Open Market Committee minutes at 2 p.m. ET. Traders will be parsing those comments for any clues pointing toward changes in monetary policy.