Wednesday:• At 7:00 AM ET, The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.• At 8:30 AM, The Consumer Price Index for December from the BLS. The consensus is for 0.5% increase in CPI, and a 0.5% increase in core CPI.On COVID (focus on hospitalizations and deaths):COVID Metrics NowWeekAgoGoal Percent fully Vaccinated62.6%---≥70.0%1 Fully Vaccinated (millions)207.8---≥2321 New Cases per Day3🚩750,996509,446≤5,0002 Hospitalized3🚩119,11586,401≤3,0002 Deaths per Day3🚩1,6331,163≤502 1 Minimum to achieve "herd immunity" (estimated between 70% and 85%).2my goals to stop daily posts,37-day average for Cases, Currently Hospitalized, and Deaths🚩 Increasing 7-day average week-over-week for Cases, Hospitalized, and Deaths ✅ Goal met. Click on graph for larger image.This graph shows the daily (columns) and 7-day average (line) of positive tests reported.New cases are at record levels (1.4 million today!). It appears likely hospitalizations will exceed the previous 7-day average record of 124,031 a year ago.Fortunately, deaths are still well below the previous 7-day average record of 3,421 in January 2021.