From the monthly archives:
The April S&P/Case-Shiller figures were released this morning. They showed home prices in 20 top metropolitan areas down 18.1% from a year earlier. That was better than the forecast for a reading of -18.6% and an improvement from the previous month’s -18.7% reading. Prices fell in all 20 cities tracked by the research organization, with [...]
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Today, the Wall Street Journal elucidated a point I have made repeatedly in many venues. Heading off a potential foreclosure tied to the STRUCTURE of a mortgage is a lot easier than avoiding a foreclosure related to broader ECONOMIC trends (falling house prices, rising unemployment, etc.). This is one reason the foreclosure problem cannot be [...]
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The Federal Open Market Committee left its interest rate target unchanged at 0% to 0.25%. Also, the Fed left its targets for purchases of Treasury debt, GSE debt, and mortgage backed securities unchanged. The complete statement is as follows:
“Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in April suggests that the pace of economic [...]
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The 5-year Treasury Note auction (of $37 billion in securities) just wrapped up and it was pretty good. The notes sold at a yield of 2.7%, compared with pre-auction talk of 2.724%. Indirect bidding was strong at 62.8%, and the bid-to-cover ratio came in at 2.58. Those were the highest figures since December 2004 and [...]
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The new home sales figures for May were released this morning. Here’s a recap …
* New home sales dipped 0.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 342,000 from 344,000 in April. The numbers are a disappointment, considering economists were expecting sales of 360,000. Results for the past few months were also downwardly revised by [...]
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The existing home sales report for May just came out. Here’s what the figures showed …
* Existing home sales gained 2.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.77 million units from 4.66 million in April. That was slightly below forecasts for a reading of 4.82 million and down 3.6% from 4.95 million a year [...]
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The Treasury Department just announced how much debt it’s going to sell next week. Get a load of these figures: $61 billion in T-bills. $40 billion of 2-year T-notes. $37 billion of 5-year Notes. And $27 billion of 7-year notes. That’s good for a record $165 billion of debt, the most sold in any week [...]
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We just got the housing starts and permits figures for the month of May. Here’s what they showed …
* Total housing starts rose 17.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 532,000 from 454,000 in April. Building permits gained 4% to 518,000 from 498,000. Economists were expecting 485,000 starts and 508,000 permits.
* By property type, [...]
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Jobless claims just hit, and they were essentially in line with expectations. Initial claims dipped from a revised 625,000 to 621,000 in the most recent week. Forecasts called for a reading of 620,000. However, the upward trend in continuing claims actually moderated for a change. They declined from 6.75 million to 6.735 million, the first [...]
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Lo and behold, it’s another free-fall in the dollar in the wake of the “Geithner Goes To China to Beg for Creditor Mercy” trip. DXY now down 81 bps to 78.34, the low of they day. Gold up $6 and change. Crude oil back to positive after trading down most of the day. And the [...]
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