The Economy Guy

Stocks rebounded in the face of the bad consumer confidence and housing price numbers.  However, this is the most optimistic time of the year as far as stocks are concerned – so enjoy it.  In reality, stocks have been going sideways over the past 2 to 3 months – but with high volatility.

All other markets went sideways.

In the news today….

The Conference Board came out with Consumer Confidence for last month, and it hit an ALL TIME LOW.  If this measure had been around during the Great Depression, I’m certain that a measure of 38 would have existed during the Depression.  Remember that 100 is neutral.

Case Schiller came out with their Housing Prices summary again, and guess what??  In October house prices were down 19% over the previous October.  But, last October house prices were already falling that means the total price fall from their high is about 25%.  And, it isn’t over yet.

Tomorrow – What’s happened of economic importance during 2008????  I’ll summarize it tomorrow – as a summary for the year.
 

Here are Today’s numbers:
Dow Jones 30 Industrial – 8668 (up 184 points)
10 Year Treasury Bond – 2.09% (down 0.01%)
Euro – $1.4074
Gold – $870 (down $5)
Oil – $39.03 (down $0.99)
Gasoline – $0.89 (up $0.01)