Housing and consumer sentiment are on the US economic calendar

What's coming up

At the bottom of the hour we get the July report on US housing starts. The consensus is for a pace of 1256K, fractionally above the 1253K reading in June. Markets risks are low for this report but a strong number could help boost GDP forecasts.

The bigger report might be the August preliminary consumer sentiment report at 1400 GMT. The consensus is a slip to 97.0 from 98.4

Finally, the Baker Hughes US oil rig count is down at 1700 GMT.

For more details, see the economic calendar.