Bank Watch
Stocks and bonds went sideways today.
The Dollar was the big news. The Dollar CRASHED – breaking through lows for the Euro, Yen, and you name it. Good bye Dollar.
Gold, oil and gasoline all responded to the collapsing Dollar.
In the news today……
Consumer Spending – rose 0.8% in October after falling 0.6% in September. This rise was a pleasant surprise for everyone. Income rose 0.2% in October, and rising income encourages more spending. This is a very big positive for the economy, but remember to wait for 3 months of increases in a row before opening that champagne.
New Home Sales – rose 6.2% in October. Great news for the housing industry, and great to start reducing the housing inventory – providing the number of houses being built starts declining. The current inventory of new houses for sale is 6.7 months worth.
Banks on Watch List – increased from 416 to 552 last month. There are a total of 8099 banks that are federally insured, so having 552 banks on the watch list is a very large percentage of all banks. The interpretation of this is that lending is going well, and financial institutions are weak and getting weaker. This is not good news for our overall economy.
Here are the last numbers for today:
Dow Jones 30 Industrial – 10,464 (up 31 points)
10 Year Treasury Bond – 3.28% (down 0.04%)
Euro – $1.5134
Gold – $1187 (up $21)
Oil – $77.81 (up $1.79)
Gasoline – $2.00 (up $0.06)
