From the monthly archives:
Key News
* U.S. Economy: Consumer Spending, Confidence Fall on Job Worries (Bloomberg)
* U.K. Nationwide House Prices Post First Annual Gain Since 2008 (Bloomberg)
* China Will Sustain Growth Rebound, Central Bank Says (Bloomberg)
* Fed Ends Treasury Buys That Capped Rates, Stabilized Housing (Bloomberg)
The Event Agenda
Morning Run-Down
The Pavlovians that have systematically bought the dip and been immediately [...]
Key News
* Norway Set to Be First European Country to Raise Rates Tomorrow (Bloomberg)
* ECB reveals first fall in household loans (Bloomberg)
* Consumer Confidence in U.S. Unexpectedly Decreases (Bloomberg)
* South Korean Economy Expands (WSJ)
The Event Agenda
Afternoon Run-Down
The broader stock market is continuing the weakness from last Friday and that’s carrying over to other asset classes, [...]
The latest S&P/Case-Shiller home price index figures were just released. On a month-over-month basis, prices were up 1.2% in 20 top metropolitan areas in August. That marked the fourth consecutive monthly gain. On a year-over-year basis, home prices were down 11.3%. That was better than the 11.9% decline economists were expecting and an improvement from [...]
Key News
* U.K. Economy Shrinks (WSJ)
* September Sales of U.S. Existing Homes Jump More Than Forecast (Bloomberg)
* Bernanke Says Financial Firms Should Pay for Closings (Bloomberg)
* Eurozone economic activity surges (FT)
The Event Agenda
Morning Run-Down
Third quarter GDP out of the UK shocked the market this morning. The market expectations were for growth of 0.2% for the [...]
The September existing home sales figures recently hit the tape. Here’s what the numbers looked like:
* Existing home sales jumped 9.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million units from 5.09 million in August. That was twice the gain that was expected and the rate of sales was the highest since July 2007.
* [...]
Our “What me, Worry?” Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke may not care about the falling dollar. But foreign central banks are getting seriously peeved about the strength in their currencies against the ever-depreciating dollar …
* The Bank of Canada released a statement today saying that “heightened volatility and persistent strength in the Canadian dollar are working [...]
One of the topics I discussed in last month’s Dividend Superstars issue was higher costs for higher learning. And while it’s certainly not a cost most retirees face, it does add another example to my long list of soaring prices for many of life’s biggest expenses — regardless of what the CPI shows.
Today, the College Board’s latest survey came out, [...]
We just got the latest data on housing starts and permits. Here’s what the numbers showed:
* September housing starts inched up by 0.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 590,000 from a downwardly revised 587,000 in August. Single family starts rose 3.9%, while multifamily starts dropped 15.2%. Starts are still down 28.2% from year-earlier [...]
The latest National Association of Home Builders index was just released. The index fell to 18 in October from 19 in September. The subindex tracking present sales fell to 17 from 18, the subindex tracking expectations about future sales dropped to 27 from 29, and the subindex measuring prospective buyer traffic slumped to 14 from [...]
Just a thought, but maybe we should call our Federal Reserve Chairman the “Bernanke-nator.” As Kyle Reese said in the original Terminator movie … “Listen, and understand. That terminator is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not [...]
