In the currency market, the dollar inched up against the euro. Late Thursday, the euro was trading at $1.4194 vs. $1.4214 on Tuesday. On the economic front, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported yesterday that resales of U.S. single-family homes and condos climbed 3.6% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million, the highest level since October.

Meanwhile, the inventory of unsold homes on the market fell 0.7% to 3.82 million in June. This is reportedly a 9.4-month supply at the June sales pace, down from 9.8 months in May.

“The housing market appears to be healing,” said Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist. Yun said that inventories would have to be at a seven-month supply to get price stabilization. He said prices could stabilize “around the end of the year.”

The NAR report sparked a debate about whether the housing market has really turned a corner.

Some

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Existing Home Sales in April rose by 2.9% to a 4.68 million annual pace, following a revised 4.55 million pace reported in March, originally reported at 4.57.  Existing Home Sales were pegged at 4.85 million in April of 2008, showing a 3.5% decline over the year.  The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $170,200 in April, down from the $175,000 median in March, which is 15.4% below 2008.  Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast increased by 11.6% to an annual pace of 770,000 in April, with a median price of $237,400.  Sales in Midwest fell by 2.0% to 1.00 million with a median price of $138,800.  In the South, existing-home sales increased by 1.8% to an annual pace of 1.74 million with a median price of $148,000. Existing-home sales in the West also showed an improvement, by 3.5%, to an annual rate of 1.17

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Yesterday's release of Crude Inventories informed that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories stand at 370.6 million barrels, after increasing by 3.9 million barrels from the week ending 04/17, above the upper boundary of the average range for this time of  year. Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 0.8 million barrels last week, and are also above the upper boundary of the average range. 

Initial Claims for the week ending 4/18 increased to 640,000, less than the expected 643,00, following 613,000 for the previous week, originally reported at 610,000, surpassing the 600,000 threshold for the 12th consecutive week.  The 4-week moving average was 646,750, a decrease of 4,250 from the previous week's unrevised average of 651,000.  Factoring in the expanded size of the labor force since the recession of the early 1980s, as a proportion of the work force, the insured employment rate is 4.6%, up

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 The ISM Manufacturing Index rose to 36.3 in March, slightly beyond expectations of a marginal increase to 36, from 35.8 in February, 35.6 in January and as low as 32.4 in December. This is the 14th consecutive month where the manufacturing sector failed to grow, adding to the frailty of the manufacturing sector.  An ISM Index level below 40 traditionally indicates recession in the economy as a whole, while a level above 65 signaled strong economic growth. This is the sixth consecutive month the index was below 40, while the NBER declared the current US recession to have started in December 2007.  The overall economy according to this report, failed to grow for the sixth month after a streak of 83 consecutive months of growth which ended in September.  All of the 18 industries pooled in the index failed to grow in March, as price advantages were

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Berkshire’s Armor Cracks; JPMorgan Bags $5 Billion Selling Deriviates; Recordati Proposes Increased Divided; China May Double Stimulus This Week; Homes Sales Continue to Break Down

After recording its worst financial results ever last year, Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A, BRK.B) announced it would cut manufacturing jobs and close facilities to buffer itself against the recession. “Berkshire’s operating companies have taken and will continue to take cost reduction actions in response to the current economic situation, including curtailing production, reducing capital expenditures, closing facilities and reducing employment to partially compensate for the declines in demand,” the firm said in a regulatory filing yesterday, Bloomberg reported. By trading over-the-counter fixed-income derivatives, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) ...

Pending Home Sales dropped by 7.7% in January to a record low of 80.4 (since 2001), following a 4.8% jump in January, originally reported at a 6.3% rise, well below analysts estimates that the index would fall by 0.3%.  The index was 85.9 in January 2008, decreasing 6.4% over the past year.  The Affordability Index rose 13.6% to 166.8, the highest on record (since 1970).  Home sales fell over the past month and over the year in all U.S. regions except the West, where the index rose 2.4 percent to 103.6 and is 13.5 percent higher than January 2008

“Even with many serious potential home buyers on the sidelines waiting for passage of the stimulus bill, job losses and weak consumer confidence were a natural drag on home sales,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR Chief Economist. “We expect similarly soft home sales in the near term, but buyers are

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  Pending Home Sales fell by 4% to a record low index value of 82.3 (since 2001 when the series began) in November.  This follows a 0.7% decline in October.  The index was 89.8 in October 2007, was as high as 101.4 in June of 2007, and decreased by 5.3% over the past year as the housing market has been converging to equilibrate itself.  Current data does not reflect the impact of mortgage interest rates falling to 50 year lows in December. 

 

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said a weakening was inevitable. “Mounting job losses and very weak consumer confidence deterred home buyers from signing contracts in November,” he said. “December's housing market activity could be comparably lower due to ongoing problems in the economy, so a real estate-focused stimulus plan is urgently needed.”

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The Pending Home Sales Index decreased by 0.7%, to 89.5 in October, following an upwardly revised 4.3% decline in September (originally reported at -4.6%), while analysts expected a decline near 4.6% for October, coming at an 84.8% surprise.  The index was 89.8 in October 2007, was as high as 101.4 in June of 2007, but has only decreased by 1% over the past year.  This is a leading indicator for the housing sector and has proven to stabilize over this past month.

“Despite the turmoil in the economy, the overall level of pending home sales has been remarkably stable over the past year, holding in a generally narrow range,” said. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist “We did see a spike in August when mortgage conditions temporarily improved, which underscores two things – there is a pent-up demand, and access to safe, affordable

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