Housing
U.S. mortgage applications sagged 1.3% last week. with both new purchases and refinancings posting declines, Housing may have bottomed - may have - but a recovery as of now is more a consensus view and less a current reality...
On a nonseasonally smoothed basis, Case-Shiller dipped 0.03% in March to mark the seventh straight monthly declineI enough to take the index down to its lowest level since October 2002 and the cumulatrve decline now from the 2006 peak exceeds 35%. To be celebrating a tentative bottom after such a negative shock would seem to bejust a tad inappropriate.
Consumer Confidence
In stark contrast to the University of Michigan reading. the Conference Board's version of consumer confidence - which is more sensitive to job market shifts - sagged to a four-month low in May. It came in at 64.9. the third decline in a row from 68.7 and defying consensus views of a to 69.6...
The truly grimmest part of the report was the section on employment. The share saying employment was plentiful fell to 7.9% from 8.4% in April and 9.0% in March. and now at a three-month low. The share saying jobs are "hard to get" rose to a four-month high of 41.0% from 38.1%.
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