The Mortgage Bankers Association’s figures on home loan performance just keep getting worse and worse. Here is what things looked like in Q3 2009:
* The overall mortgage delinquency rate surged to 9.64% in Q3 2009 from 9.24% in Q2 2009 and 6.99% a year earlier. Once again, this is a fresh record high for the [...]
From the monthly archives:
November 2009
We just got the latest data on housing construction activity. Here’s a recap:
* Overall housing starts plunged 10.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 529,000 in October from 592,000 in September. That was much worse than the 600,000 units that economists were expecting. Building permit activity was also weak. Permitting activity dropped 4% to [...]
Key News
* International Purchases of Long-Term U.S. Assets Rose (Bloomberg)
* Fed’s Yellen: Rate Policy May Be Used Against Asset Bubbles (Bloomberg)
* Obama Urges China to Heed Commitment on Currency Appreciation (Bloomberg)
* Japan Deflation Concern Rises Even as Growth Quickens (Bloomberg)
The Event Agenda
Morning Run-Down
There has been a lot of information to digest over the weekend and [...]
The National Association of Home Builders just released its latest builder sentiment index. The reading came in at 17. That was unchanged from a downwardly revised 17 in October and slightly below the 19 number economists were expecting.
Among the sub-indices, the one measuring present single family sales was unchanged at 17. The prospective buyer traffic [...]
Holy cow! That didn’t last long. Look at this intraday chart of the Dollar Index. If that’s all the bang Bernanke can get for his … er … buck, the dollar is sicker than even I thought (and that’s saying something)!
The text from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech in New York was just released. For a change, he actually mentioned the dollar and suggested that its movements could factor into policy decisions. That has led to a bounce in the Dollar Index from its daily low. The operative text is below:
“The foreign exchange value of [...]
There’s a lot of chatter on the dollar front today. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told a group of Japanese reporters that he “believe[s] deeply that it’s very important for the U.S. and the economic health of the U.S. that we maintain a strong dollar.”
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum is also up in arms about the [...]
Key News
* Fitch: U.K. Most at Risk of AAA Downgrade (WSJ)
* Europe’s industry slams China over currency (WSJ)
* IEA Cuts 2030 Oil Demand Forecast on Economy, Climate Policy (Bloomberg)
* Brussels to rebuke Greece over budget deficit (FT)
The Event Agenda
Morning Run-Down
With the central bank events of last week behind us, the markets jumped back on the [...]
What are your forecasts for 2010?
Where will the greatest profit opportunities be?
Click here to join the discussion!
We decided to create The Weiss Forecast Contest for an important reason: To help prepare you for the investment challenges and opportunities you’re likely to face next year [...]
I’m sorry, I can’t make it any more plain than that. To argue that financial bubbles aren’t dangerous, and that the Fed shouldn’t try to combat them — which is what ex-Fed governor Frederic Mishkin just did in the Financial Times — is monumentally stupid. Can this guy be serious? Haven’t we seen what a [...]
