Euro breaks through 1.60 level verses Dollar. Existing Home Sales dip in March. | CountingPips Forex & Currency Trading Blog

April 22, 2008 - Forex Economic News

Euro breaks through 1.60 level verses Dollar. Existing Home Sales dip in March.

The euro broke through the 1.60 dollars per euro barrier earlier today. Comments from European Central Bank members, citing inflationary pressures, helped push the euro to a new all time record high verse the dollar at 1.6012. The euro had reached a previous record high last week at 1.5983 dollars per euro after inflation data from the Eurozone reached the highest level in over a decade. ECB governing council members Christian Noyer and Yves Mersch both reiterated the ECB's desire to reign in inflation in separate speeches and raised expectations that the ECB will possibly raise interest rates to help tame inflation. Eurozone inflation increased in March by 1.0 percent to an annual rate of 3.6 percent on higher food and energy prices while the ECB target rate of inflation is approximately 2.0 percent.

US Economy News, Existing Home sales dip.

U.S. Existing Homes sales declined for the month of March according to the monthly report produced by the National Association of Realtors. The NAR report showed that existing-home sales including single family homes, co-ops and townhouses decreased 2.0 percent in March from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.93 million units. March's existing-homes sales were 19.3 percent below March 2007's sales pace of 6.11 million units. The median sales price for existing homes in March was $200,700. This is down 7.7 percent from March 2007 which produced a median price of $217,400. Total housing inventory increased in March by 1.0 percent to a total of 4.06 million homes for sale.

The fallout from the subprime mortgage has eliminated many from participating in the housing market and many buyers are waiting before purchasing as NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun stated in the report, "Though mortgage rates are at historically low levels, some borrowers are facing restrictive lending practices in declining markets,” and “At the same time, many buyers continue to bide their time with a large number of homes to choose from, while other potential buyers remain on the sidelines."

Tags: ecb, inflation, record euro, 1.60, eur, usd, existing home sales, us real estate, nar, lawrence yun

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