The U.S. Commerce Department is likely to report that housing starts rose to a rate of 1.235 million units in August from a 1.168 million-unit pace in July, according to a Reuters survey of economists. Building permits are forecast increasing to a 1.31 million-unit pace from 1.303 million units in July. The Commerce Department will also publish its second-quarter current account data. The current account deficit is expected to have contracted to $103.5 billion from $124.1 billion in the first three months of the year.
China and the United States plunged deeper into a trade war after Beijing added $60 billion of U.S. products to its import tariff list in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s planned levies on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.