From the monthly archives:
It’s a massacre for U.S. assets today, with the Treasury Bond market getting crushed … gold flying … and the U.S. dollar tanking. Specifically, as I write, the long bond futures are off 2 13/32 in price. The yield on the 10-year Treasury Note is surging by 17 basis points to 3.36%. Spot gold is trading [...]
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Sigh. It just keeps getting longer. I’m talking about the bailout list, of course. It looks like the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., or PBGC, is going to need a bailout due to its ever-deepening deficit. The agency’s deficit is up to $33.5 billion, triple the level just six months earlier. And huge new obligations could [...]
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We just got the latest look at jobless claims and once again, the numbers weren’t pretty. Initial claims came in at 631,000, above forecasts for a reading of 625,000. But the real news continues to be the fact that people who lose their jobs are not finding new work. Continuing jobless claims ramped up again [...]
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The government just provided its latest look at housing construction and permitting activity. Here’s what the April numbers showed …
* Total housing starts plunged another 12.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 458,000 from 525,000 in March. Building permits slipped 3.3% to 494,000 from 511,000. Economists were expecting 520,000 starts and 530,000 permits. These [...]
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We just got the latest National Association of Home Builders index data for the month of May. The figures were as follows:
* The overall index climbed to 16 in May from 14 in April. That was in line with the forecast of economists polled by Bloomberg and the highest since September.
* The subindex that tracks [...]
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We continue to get a barrage of economic data, most of which continues to point to a troubled environment. Initial jobless claims popped to 637,000 from 605,000 in the previous week. That was well above the 610,000 level that was forecast.
More importantly, people who lose their jobs continue to have trouble finding new work. Continuing [...]
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Kicking the can down the road by instituting temporary foreclosure moratoriums helped suppress filings for a while. But those industry-led and government-mandated foreclosure “pauses” are behind us, and filings are rising once again. According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure activity rose 0.3% month-over-month to a new record high of 342,038 in April. That was also up 32% [...]
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Forget the stress test. The big story in the markets today is the plunging dollar. The Dollar Index is getting crushed, down 1.27 points to 82.66 at last count. For you technically inclined readers, it’s also plunging through its 200-day moving average.
What’s going on? The positive read is that this move signals a return to [...]
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Yikes — did you see that intraday chart on the long bond futures? Nasty! The government just sold $14 billion of long bonds at a whopping 4.288% yield. That was far above pre-auction forecasts for a yield of 4.192%, according to Bloomberg. The bid-to-cover ratio came in at just 2.14, compared with a 10-auction average [...]
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Zillow.com is out with the firm’s latest report on “upside down” homeowners — those who owe more than their homes are worth. The real estate data company estimates that 21.8% of U.S. homeowners are now underwater on their mortgages, up from 17.6% in the fourth quarter of 2008. Zillow’s data covers 161 metropolitan areas. More [...]
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