US Home Prices, Consumer Confidence see new record lows. Dollar mixed in Forex Trading. | CountingPips Forex Blog

January 27, 2009 - Forex Economic News

US Home Prices, Consumer Confidence see new record lows. Dollar mixed in Forex Trading.

Home prices in the U.S. declined for the twenty-eighth straight month in November according to the Standard & Poors/Case-Shiller index released today. The S & P/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 November house prices report showed that USD mixed in Forex Trading the 20-city composite index fell an annual 18.2 percent to mark a new record low while the 10-city composite index tied October's record low of a 19.1 percent annual decline.

David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S & P, commented on the report, "The freefall in residential real estate continued through November 2008. Since August 2006, the 10-City and 20-City Composites have declined every month – a total of 28 consecutive months. Every region was down in excess of 1% for the November/October period, with eight of the regions recording record monthly declines."

The areas hardest hit continued to be Las Vegas and Phoenix with annual declines of 31.6 percent and 32.9 percent, respectively. San Francisco also registered over a 30 percent annual decline in November at 30.8 percent. On an annual basis, none of the 20 metropolitan areas measured have shown house price increases with Dallas and Denver being the areas with the lowest annual declines of 3.3 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively. On a monthly basis, Phoenix registered the largest house price decline with a fall of 3.4 percent with Las Vegas close behind with a 3.3 percent monthly decline.

Consumer Confidence sets new record low in January.

Consumer confidence edged down to a new record low in January according to the monthly report 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 a previous record low of 38.6 in December to a new all-time low of 37.7 in January. The Present Situation index fell from 30.2 in December to 29.9 in January while the Expectations index fell from 44.2 in December to 43.0 this month.

According to the survey, consumers saw a more negative outlook for January in present-day conditions and business conditions than the December survey results while the consumer feeling on the job market increased in January. 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 dollar has advanced versus the Swiss franc, euro, Australian dollar and Canadian dollar while losing ground to the Japanese yen, British pound and New Zealand dollar.

The euro has decreased versus the dollar as the EUR/USD has fallen from today's 1.3211 opening at 00:00GMT to trading at approximately 1.3180 in the afternoon of the US trading session at 1:24pm ET.

The British pound has advanced today versus the American currency from the 1.4044 opening to trading later at 1.4169 dollars per pound. The dollar has declined against the Japanese yen today as the USD/JPY has dipped from its 89.36 opening to trading at 88.82.

The dollar has advanced ever so slightly against the Canadian dollar as the USD/CAD trades at 1.2246 after opening at 1.2244 earlier today.

Meanwhile, the USD has also advanced slightly against the Swiss franc from 1.1368 to trading at 1.1379. The Australian dollar has been little changed from its opening today versus the USD as the AUD/USD has managed to edge down a bit from its 0.6631 opening to trading at 0.6626. The New Zealand dollar has advanced versus the USD and trades at 0.5293 after opening the day at the 0.5282 exchange rate.

GBP/USD Chart - The British Pound advancing today against the US Dollar but trading below the 21-day simple moving average(blue).

Today's Forex Chart

tags: house prices, us home price, consumer confidence, forex trading

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