Mixing signals from US macros. In the United States, new home sales increased by 11,6% in December, rising to the annualized rate of 481 units: the figure released by the Commerce Department is higher than the expectations of analysts, who expected an annual rate of 450 unit. American consumer confidence in January was also better than expected, reaching 102,9 points from the revised 93,1 of the previous month (92,6 the preliminary). The figure, communicated by the Conference Board of the United States, is in fact much better than the expectations of analysts who had predicted 95 points.
On the other hand, the manufacturing activity disappoints: the Fed Richmond manufacturing sector index for the month of January dropped to 6 points, after December 7th. This was communicated by the Fed District of Richmond itself.
