After moving upward for two straight months, existing-home sales retreated in April on both a monthly and annualized basis, according to the National Association of Realtors. All four major regions saw no gain in sales activity last month.

Total existing-home sales which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, decreased 2.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.46 million in April from 5.60 million in March. With last month's decline, sales are now 1.4 percent below a year ago and have fallen year-over-year for two straight months.

U.S. house prices rose 1.7 percent in the first quarter of 2018 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI). House prices rose 6.9 percent from the first quarter of 2017 to the first quarter of 2018. FHFA's seasonally adjusted monthly index for March was up 0.1 percent from February.

The HPI is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages sold to, or guaranteed by, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"Home prices continue to rise across the U.S. but there are signs of tapering," said Dr. William Doerner, Senior Economist. "Since housing markets began to rebound in 2012, house price appreciation has been positive because demand has outpaced supply. In the last month, however, some regions reflect a slowing or even flattening of house price growth."

In the week ending May 19, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 234,000, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 222,000 to 223,000. The 4-week moving average was 219,750, an increase of 6,250 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 213,250 to 213,500.

• Growth risks broadly balanced, growth still solid, broad-based

• Slowdown due in part to one-offs but capacity constraints also more pronounced

• Confident that inflation would rise towards target in medium term

• A view was expressed that ECB was close to a sustained adjusment of inflation but most disagreed

In April 2018, the quantity of goods bought in the retail industry remained relatively flat with a slight increase of 0.1% in the three-month on three-month movement.

When compared with March 2018, the quantity bought in April increased by 1.6% as all sectors, excluding department stores, recovered from the declines seen in March.

Department stores showed a different monthly picture to all other sectors as the only sector to report a fall in quantities bought, at negative 0.9% in April following strong online sales in March.

Petrol sales reported the largest recovery in April, with a growth of 4.7% compared with a decline of negative 6.9% in the previous month as road closures affected travel in March.

Online sales as a proportion of all retailing continued to grow year-on-year at 17.3% in April 2018, in comparison with 16.1% in April 2017; with food and clothing stores achieving record online proportions.

• Says Libor is a prime example of critical hard market infrastructure that has not kept up with market developments

• Says deteriorating growth environment or loosening of fiscal stance could impact fiscal outlook, market sentiment

• Fed staff projections see above-trend GDP growth through 2020

• Most participants viewed firming of inflation as providing "reassurance" that Fed's 2 percent target would be reached; a few cautioned that expectations remained somewhat low

• A few policymakers noted that Federal Funds rate could reach neutral level "before too long" if rate increases continued

• Some participants said uncertainty around trade policy outcomes could dampen business sentiment and spending

• A number of participants said U.S. trade policies raised a "particularly wide" range of risks for economic activity and inflation

By and large, German consumers are still taking a relaxed view of the escalation of the geopolitical situation. This confidence continued essentially unabated in May. Economic expectations remained the same and income expectations increased slightly. In contrast, propensity to buy suffered a downturn. GfK forecasts a decrease in consumer climate for June compared to the previous month of 0.1 points, taking it to 10.7 points.

The termination of the nuclear agreement with Iran by the American President did not have a particularly negative effect on the mood of consumers. Economic and income expectations remained stable at a good level in May, although the propensity to buy was slightly less euphoric. As a consequence, the consumer climate suffered minimal losses.

As the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) already reported in its first release of 15 May 2018, the gross domestic product (GDP) increased 0.3% - upon price, seasonal and calendar adjustment - in the first quarter of 2018 compared with the fourth quarter of 2017. This is the 15th quarter-on-quarter growth in a row, contributing to the longest upswing phase since 1991. Last year, GDP growth rates were higher (+0.7% in the third quarter and +0.6% in the fourth quarter of 2017).

The quarter-on-quarter comparison (price, seasonally and calendar-adjusted) shows that positive contributions came from domestic demand. Especially fixed capital formation increased markedly at the beginning of the year. Gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment rose 1.2% on the fourth quarter of 2017. Gross fixed capital formation in construction was up by as much as 2.1%. Also, household final consumption expenditure increased slightly (+0.4%). Government final consumption expenditure, however, decreased for the first time in almost five years (-0.5%) and had a downward effect on GDP growth.

EUR/USD

Resistance levels (open interest**, contracts)

$1.1875 (1789)

$1.1810 (1814)

$1.1786 (1418)

Price at time of writing this review: $1.1709

Support levels (open interest**, contracts):

$1.1679 (2858)

$1.1659 (2862)

$1.1633 (3306)

Comments:

- Overall open interest on the CALL options and PUT options with the expiration date June, 8 is 156075 contracts (according to data from May, 23) with the maximum number of contracts with strike price $1,1500 (6933);

GBP/USD

Resistance levels (open interest**, contracts)

$1.3616 (2562)

$1.3533 (1119)

$1.3466 (331)

Price at time of writing this review: $1.3354

Support levels (open interest**, contracts):

$1.3295 (2398)

$1.3272 (1825)

$1.3243 (1289)

Comments:

- Overall open interest on the CALL options with the expiration date June, 8 is 38738 contracts, with the maximum number of contracts with strike price $1,3600 (2562);

- Overall open interest on the PUT options with the expiration date June, 8 is 40832 contracts, with the maximum number of contracts with strike price $1,3400 (2398);

- The ratio of PUT/CALL was 1.05 versus 1.05 from the previous trading day according to data from May, 23.

* - The Chicago Mercantile Exchange bulletin (CME) is used for the calculation.

** - Open interest takes into account the total number of option contracts that are open at the moment.