US Existing Home Sales rise more than expected in December. Leading Indicators edge up. Dollar falls in Fx Trade. | CountingPips Forex Blog

January 26, 2009 - Forex Economic News

US Existing Home Sales rise more than expected in December. Leading Indicators edge up. Dollar falls in Fx Trade.

U.S. Existing Homes sales increased more than expected in the month of December 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 USD falls in Fx Trade increased 6.5 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.74 million units.

Economic forecasts were predicting sales to decline by 2.0 percent for the month following a 9.4 percent revised decrease in November. December's existing-homes sales, despite the increase for the month, are still 3.5 percent below December 2007's sales level. The median sales price for existing homes in December registered at $175,400, down 15.3 percent from the December 2007 level which saw a median price of $207,000. Total housing inventory showed a decrease in December by 11.7 percent to a total of 3.68 million homes.

NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun commented on December's increase in home sales, "It appears some buyers are taking advantage of much lower home prices,” and that, “The higher monthly sales gain and falling inventory are steps in the right direction, but the market is still far from normal balanced conditions. Buyers will continue to have an edge over sellers for the foreseeable future."

U.S. Leading Indicators rise in December.

The U.S. Leading Indicators Index, published by the Conference Board, edged up in the month of December. The Leading Indicator Index, which measures future economic activity, registered a 0.3 percent increase in December following a decrease of 0.4 percent in November. December's increase surpassed market forecasts that were predicting a decline of 0.2 percent for the month.

Contributing to the leading index rise in December were increases in real money supply, manufacturers' new orders for consumer goods & materials, manufacturers' new orders for nondefense capital goods and the interest rate spread. Declining sectors in the December index were building permits, supplier deliveries, weekly jobless claims, stock prices and average weekly manufacturing hours while consumer expectations were unchanged.

The coincident economic index, which is viewed as a measure of the current economic activity, fell by 0.5 percent in December while the lagging economic index decreased by 0.4 percent.

US Dollar falls in Fx Trading.

The U.S. dollar has been generally weaker in the forex market today against most of the major currencies. The dollar has lost ground to the euro, pound, Swiss franc, Canadian loonie, Japanese yen and Australian dollar while showing a gain versus the New Zealand dollar.

The euro has advanced in trading versus the dollar from today's 1.2944 opening at 00:00GMT to trading at approximately 1.3102 in the afternoon of the US trading session at 2:24pm EST. The British pound has increased versus the dollar as the GBP/USD has gone from its 1.3661 opening to trading at 1.3878 in the U.S. session.

The dollar has fallen against the Japanese yen as the USD/JPY has declined from its 89.21 opening to trading at 88.96 later today. Against the Swiss franc, the USD has been falling today after gaining for most of last week as the USD/CHF has declined from its 1.1620 opening to trading at 1.1413.

The dollar has declined against the Canadian dollar after opening at 1.2340 earlier today to trading later at 1.2258. The Australian dollar is virtually unchanged versus the USD with the AUD/USD trading at 0.6550 after opening today at 0.6549 but the aussie is on the decline after reaching an intraday high of 0.6644.

The New Zealand dollar has declined versus the US dollar as the NZD/USD trades at 0.5234 after opening the day at the 0.5288 exchange rate.

USD/CHF Chart - The US Dollar falling today against the Swiss Franc and falling below the 55-period simple moving average on the 4-hour chart.

Today's Forex Chart

tags: existing-home sales, real estate, leading indicators, fx trading, forex

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