Existing Homes Sales Rose And Inventories Fell In December

LFB Forex

Published Dec 31, 0000 07:00PM ET

Updated Jan 26, 2009 10:24AM ET

Release Explanation: Annualized number of existing residential buildings that were sold during the previous month, excluding new construction. They include both quantity and price statistics. Important since the housing market is included in most economic forecasts. Retail Sales, CPI, and PCE in the US. A happy householder will usually lead to a strong economic outlook. A miss here, either way, and the Markets gets to see the real confidence of the US consumer. There is a very strong impact on the sentiment towards the US Dollar from this report.

Trade Desk Thoughts: Existing homes sales rose 6.5% in December to a 4.74M annual pace, the National Association of Retailers said today, boosted by the biggest slump in prices since the great depression. Economists had expected to see a 4.4M annual rate in December.

"The news here is good on two fronts," said Matthew Carniol, chief currency strategist at TheLFB-forex.com. "Prices seem to fallen enough to attract some decent buying interest and inventories decreased sharply."

Sales were down 3.5% compared with a year earlier. Resale’s averaged 4.91M in 2008, down 13% from 2007 and the fewest in 11 years.

The inventory of existing homes fell 16.9% to a 9.3 month supply at the current sales pace, down from 11.2 months in November. The median price of an existing home fell 9.3% in 2008 from the prior year, the biggest decline since records began and the biggest since the Great Depression.

Resale’s of single-family homes increased 7% to an annual rate of 4.26M. Sales of condos and co-ops rose 2.1% to a 480,000 rate.

Forex Technical Reaction: The dollar has been weakening overnight against the euro, pound and aussie, and the S&P opened about 1% higher on the day. After the report the dollar retraced slightly, and the S&P jumped to better than a 2% gain.

Get The News You Want

Read market moving news with a personalized feed of stocks you care about.

Get The App

Written By: LFB Forex

Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.

Show moreShow Less