Archive for August, 2008

Meeting Minutes Say FOMC’s Stance Remains Neutral

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

The minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) Aug. 4-5 meeting show that board members "did not see the current stance of policy as particularly accommodative." It also revealed that most members anticipate the next policy move to be a tightening of rates, but the timing and extent of ...

Lower Gas Prices Drove Rebound in U.S. Consumer Confidence Survey

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Consumer confidence continued to rise in August, which economists largely attribute to a drop in gas prices over the past several months. However, despite the improvement in recent months, they say the index remains at depressed levels. Read More Now

Some Economists Find “Cheery Quality” to U.S. New Homes Sales Report

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Despite 46k of downward revisions in the previous two months, which pushed the pace of new home sales lower than expected even with a 2.4% monthly rebound, economists said the Department of Commerce's July report was positive as the level of inventories saw a notable reduction. Eric Lascelles, chief economics and ...

Freddie and Fannie Buck Market Trend

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

In spite of the beating the stock market took on Monday with the Dow Jones down 242 points and even though financial stocks were among the biggest losers, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae shares came roaring back from their awful performance on Friday. Jim Cramer said on NBC news Tuesday morning ...

Consumer Confidence Improves to 56.9 in August

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

The Conference Board's U.S. consumer confidence index for August improved to 56.9 in Tuesday's report, higher than the expected improvement to 53.0. "Consumer confidence readings suggest that the economy remains stuck in neutral, but may be showing signs of improvement by early next year... Read More Now

U.S. House Prices Flat in June, Says OFHEO

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

U.S. house prices were flat in June following May's revised 0.4% pullback, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) reported Tuesday. The consensus had been looking for a decline of 0.4% in the month... Read More Now

New Home Sales Rise, but Downward Revisions to Prior Data

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

New home sales in the U.S. rebounded by 2.4% to an annual pace of 515k in July, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Despite the percentage gain, that pace of sales is much lower than expected following 46k of downward revisions to the previous data. Read More Now

Fed’s Fisher Says Growth Could Go Negative, but Focus Remains on Inflation

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Speaking in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires on Monday, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher (voter) said growth in the U.S. could slow to zero or even turn negative in the second half of 2008, but the main issue remains whether inflation will become persistent or not. Read More ...

Case-Shiller U.S. Home Price Index Declines by 15.4% in Q2

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

The S&P Case-Shiller U.S. home price index fell less than expected in the second-quarter as the 20-city composite index posted an annual decline of 15.38%, up from a 14.22% decline in the first quarter. The Case-Shiller index has fallen every month since peaking in July 2006, but economists say the ...

The Day Ahead: U.S. July New Home Sales, FOMC Minutes

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Housing data will be center of attention on Tuesday with the release of U.S. new home sales for July and the June Case- Shiller Home Price Index. U.S. new home sales are expected to fall 0.9% to 525k in July following June's decline of 0.6%. Meanwhile, the Case-Shiller home price composite for ...