Existing Home Sales
Stocks and bonds moved sideways today.
The Dollar FELL dramatically against most currencies.
Oil and gasoline went up – and this was driven by the weak Dollar
Gold went up slightly – and this was driven by the weak Dollar.
In the news today…..
Existing Home Sales – rose 2.4%, the 3rd month in a row increase. Good news, but not good enough. One in three home sales were a distressed sale, and the median price fell to $173,000, 16.8% drop from one year ago. The good news was that the inventory dropped to 9.6 months worth of homes – still too much, but coming down. Let’s hope it continues coming down. A major problem with the housing market today is the appraisal rules being created by Fannie/Freddie and enforced by underwriters – these have slowed down sales.
3 Small Banks with TARP – suspending paying dividends to the US Government. Their financial situation is so bad, they can’t pay the dividends on the TARP money. Consider your tax money lost on these losers. I guess I just don’t understand why FDIC didn’t step in a lot earlier and take them over if they are this bad off.
FED Chair Bernanke – was not highly praised by President Obama today when a press officer asked a question about the FED. Obama said all agencies had made mistakes, and the FED had done better than most. In my opinion, this was not high praise.
Here are the last numbers for today:
Dow Jones 30 Industrial – 8323 (down 16 points)
10 Year Treasury Bond – 3.64% (down 0.05%)
Euro – $1.4078
Gold – $924 (up $3)
Oil – $69.74 (up $1.74)
Gasoline $1.89 (up $0.03)