From the monthly archives:
The latest data on home prices from S&P/Case-Shiller was just released. It showed prices down 13.3% in July from a year earlier in the 20 metropolitan areas tracked by the group. That was a smaller rate of decline than the market was looking for (-14.2%) and a smaller decline than we saw in June (-15.4%). [...]
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August new home sales figures inched higher, but only because of revisions. The raw number of sales missed forecasts. Details below …
* New home sales rose 0.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 429,000. But the “increase” stemmed from a downward revision to July’s number (to 426,000 from 433,000). Sales missed the average forecast [...]
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The August existing home sales figures were just released. Here’s what the numbers looked like:
* Existing home sales fell 2.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.1 million units from 5.24 million in July. That was below the 5.35 million units that economists were expecting.
* Single-family sales dropped 2.8%, while condo and cooperative sales [...]
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The latest Fed meeting just wrapped up. And just as I expected, policymakers decided to keep the liquor flowing and the music playing as loud as possible!
Specifically, the Fed kept its interest rate target unchanged at 0% to 0.25%. It also signaled that it planned to maintain “exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate [...]
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There are some good stories at the Washington Post today about how the Fed is fueling fresh carry trades/bubbles by keeping interest rates pegged around zero. I covered this exact same topic a few days ago. The Fed seems to have no other solution for burst bubbles than easy money … which then fuels new [...]
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If you get a chance, check out my latest video update. It gives you a heads up about what to expect when the two-day Federal Open Market Committee wraps up tomorrow afternoon. Here’s the link.
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We just got the latest data on home construction. Here’s a recap of what they showed:
* Overall housing starts climbed 1.5% to a nine-month high of 598,000 in August from 589,000 in July. That was exactly in line with the average forecast of economists. Building permit activity rose 2.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate [...]
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The National Association of Home Builders released its latest batch of data on housing market conditions this afternoon …
* The overall index rose to 19 in September from 18 in August. That matched the average forecast of economists polled by Bloomberg. It was the highest this index has been since May 2008.
* What about the [...]
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The motto these days seems to be: “Is the market open? Then sell dollars!” I say that because the dollar was weak again in the overnight session. The Dollar Index is currently down 12 bps to 76.40, its lowest level going all the way back to last September. The Japanese yen keeps banging away at [...]
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We just got a trifecta of economic reports and they all suggest the economy is recovering (and that the inflation picture is somewhat less benign). To wit:
* Retail sales surged 2.7% in August. That was much stronger than the 1.9% gain that was expected and the biggest rise in three years. But even if you [...]
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