US Home Prices, Consumer Confidence continue record drop. Dollar mixed in Forex Trading. | CountingPips Forex Blog

December 30, 2008 - Forex Economic News

US Home Prices, Consumer Confidence continue record drop. Dollar mixed in Forex Trading.

Home prices in the U.S. continue to decline as the Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller index released today showed that home prices fell new record amounts in October when compared to a year ago. The S & P’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index measures sale prices of existing single-family homes nationally and tracks 10-city and 20-city composite home price measurements. The October house prices report showed that the 20-city composite index fell USD mixed in Forex Trading an annual 18.0 percent in October to mark a new record low while the 10-city composite index also fell a new record low 19.1 percent in October compared to last year.

The areas hardest hit continued to be Las Vegas and Phoenix with annual declines of 31.7 percent and 32.7 percent, respectively. San Francisco also registered over a 30 percent annual decline in October at 31.0 percent. On an annual basis, none of the 20 metropolitan areas measured have shown house price increases with Dallas and Charlotte being the areas with the lowest annual declines of 3.0 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively. On a monthly basis, Detroit registered the largest house price decline with a fall of 4.5 percent with San Francisco close behind with 4.2 percent monthly decline.

David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S & P, commented in the report, "The bear market continues; home prices are back to their March, 2004 levels. Both composite indices and 14 of the 20 metro areas are reporting new record rates of decline. As of October 2008, the 10-City Composite is down 25.0% from its mid-2006 peak, and the 20-City Composite is down 23.4%.”

Consumer Confidence drops record amount in December.

Consumer confidence declined to a record low in data released today by the Conference Board today. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, a survey of 5,000 households, showed that consumer confidence declined from 44.7 in November to an all-time low of 38.0 in December. The Present Situation index dropped from 42.3 in November to 29.4 in December while the Expectations index fell from 46.2 in November to 43.8 in December. According to the survey, consumers saw a more negative outlook for December in present-day conditions, business conditions and the job market than the November survey results. The survey also registered lower scores this month in short term outlook as more consumers rated the outlook for business conditions as worse in 6 months from now.

US Dollar mixed in forex trading today.

The U.S. dollar has been mixed in forex trading today against the major currencies.
The euro has increased verses the dollar as the EUR/USD has edged up from today's 1.4099 opening at 00:00GMT to trading at approximately 1.4115 in the afternoon of the US trading session at 2:13pm ET.

The British pound has fallen today verses the American currency from 1.4510 to trading at 1.4429 dollars per pound. The dollar has edged up slightly against the Japanese yen today as the USD/JPY has gained from its 90.22 opening to trading at 90.27.

The dollar has advanced against the Canadian dollar as the USD/CAD trades at 1.2204 after opening at 1.2156 earlier today. The USD/CAD spiked up to a high of 1.2340 today before retreating.

Meanwhile, the USD has also advanced against the Swiss franc from 1.0534 to trading at 1.0562. The Australian dollar has been trading in a sideways range today verses the USD and the AUD/USD has managed to edge down a bit from its 0.6914 opening to trading at 0.6912. The New Zealand dollar has fallen verses the USD and trades at 0.5773 after opening at 0.5524.

GBP/USD Chart - The British Pound trading under its 21 day moving average today against the US Dollar(Daily Chart).

Today's Forex Chart

tags: us home prices, consumer confidence, forex trading, usd

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