From the category archives:
The latest S&P/Case-Shiller home price index figures were just released. On a month-over-month basis, prices were up 1.2% in 20 top metropolitan areas in August. That marked the fourth consecutive monthly gain. On a year-over-year basis, home prices were down 11.3%. That was better than the 11.9% decline economists were expecting and an improvement from [...]
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The September existing home sales figures recently hit the tape. Here’s what the numbers looked like:
* Existing home sales jumped 9.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million units from 5.09 million in August. That was twice the gain that was expected and the rate of sales was the highest since July 2007.
* [...]
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Our “What me, Worry?” Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke may not care about the falling dollar. But foreign central banks are getting seriously peeved about the strength in their currencies against the ever-depreciating dollar …
* The Bank of Canada released a statement today saying that “heightened volatility and persistent strength in the Canadian dollar are working [...]
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We just got the latest data on housing starts and permits. Here’s what the numbers showed:
* September housing starts inched up by 0.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 590,000 from a downwardly revised 587,000 in August. Single family starts rose 3.9%, while multifamily starts dropped 15.2%. Starts are still down 28.2% from year-earlier [...]
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The latest National Association of Home Builders index was just released. The index fell to 18 in October from 19 in September. The subindex tracking present sales fell to 17 from 18, the subindex tracking expectations about future sales dropped to 27 from 29, and the subindex measuring prospective buyer traffic slumped to 14 from [...]
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Just a thought, but maybe we should call our Federal Reserve Chairman the “Bernanke-nator.” As Kyle Reese said in the original Terminator movie … “Listen, and understand. That terminator is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not [...]
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Okay, so that’s not the headline you’re going to read on the wires. But really, his speech at the Conference on Asia and the Global Financial Crisis in Santa Barbara, California is very academic. It’s focused on longer-term trade and growth issues, and frankly, I don’t see any explicit or implicit comments directed at the [...]
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You have to love it: The just released Fed minutes from the September 22-23 meeting are looking unbelievably dovish. Some Fed members were reportedly even open to INCREASING the size of MBS purchases. This from a Fed whose quantitative easing policies are driving the dollar into the crapper. Seriously? Meanwhile, the Fed minutes note that [...]
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We’re getting some more U.S. economic data and the tone overall is okay. Retail sales dropped 1.5% in September as the Cash for Clunkers program expired (Auto sales plunged 10.4% on the month). But that was actually better than the -2.1% reading that was expected. If you take out autos and gas, sales were actually [...]
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What a morning for the U.S. dollar … a bad one, that is. It’s getting hammered against all the major currencies, with the Australian dollar leading the way, thanks to a semi-surprise rate hike by the Reserve Bank of Australia. Unlike our “all easy money, all the time” Federal Reserve, the RBA is joining minor [...]
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