From the monthly archives:
There was more interesting market action today. The S&P 500 closed at a 12-year low, with other key indices (transports, utilities) also falling sharply. Despite that selling, long bonds couldn’t catch a bid. The futures finished down 31/32 at 124 25/32, a fresh low for this bearish move. Meanwhile, the dollar index is finishing the [...]
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Every quarter, the FDIC releases a document called the Quarterly Banking Profile. It provides a wealth of data about banking industry losses, loan performance, failed banks, and more. The latest report (PDF Link) just hit the tape, and here are some of the details:
* The banking industry as a whole lost $26.2 billion. That was [...]
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The Obama administration has released its big-picture budget outlook for 2009 and beyond. The big headline: The U.S. government is on track to record a deficit of a whopping $1.75 TRILLION in fiscal 2009. That is by far the biggest deficit ever, and almost four times as large as the $459 billion figure for 2008. [...]
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In the wake of yesterday’s dismal existing home sales figures for January, we received awful new home sales figures today. The details can be found below …
* New home sales collapsed 10.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000 from 344,000 in December. That was worse than the average forecast of economists surveyed by [...]
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We just got the existing home sales figures for January. This is what they showed:
* Existing home sales fell 5.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.49 million from 4.74 million in December. That was much worse than the forecast for a reading of 4.79 million and the lowest level on record. Single-family sales [...]
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The bank nationalization chatter continues to increase in volume. Meanwhile, the government’s bank bailout plans continue to morph in form and scope. The latest development? The government is moving toward converting preferred share stakes in banks into common shares. More about the process comes from the Washington Post below …
“The change paves a road toward [...]
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I probably received more feedback on my Obama mortgage plan comments — both here at this blog and in other venues — than on any other topic. Good. I’m glad to see people are engaged on this issue.
Judging by a few of the comments, however, I think I need to elaborate on one point: I [...]
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The latest economic news ain’t so good, to put it mildly. Initial jobless claims came in at 627,000 in the week of February 14, above forecasts for 620,000 and just shy of the cycle high of 631,000 from late January. Continuing claims rose to 4.987 million from 4.817 million — a fresh record high for [...]
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The earlier post I put up was based on media reports. Now, the Obama administration has officially released its plan to reduce foreclosures. The details can be found here (PDF link). Let’s get into the major components …
The centerpiece of the program is designed to encourage loan modifications through government subsidies and payments — payments [...]
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The National Association of Home Builders released its latest Housing Market Index survey this afternoon. Here’s what the report showed …
* The overall index ticked up 1 point to 9 in February. January’s reading of 8 was a record low for the series, which dates back to 1985. A year ago, the index stood at [...]
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