Thoughts to Ponder . . .
- Enjoy your life thoroughly, the same way you wash your clothes.
- Whenever you feel stupid, remember that there were people out there searching for Pokemon.
- I was born to be wild, but only until around 9pm or so.
- Be a pineapple: stand tall, wear a crown, and be sweet on the inside.
- Some of the greatest ideas of all time have come to people during Math class… none of which had anything to do with Math.
And Now on to The Market Update . . .
It has been a while since you have heard me make a reference how the more we hear about something, the more “numb” we become to it.
- Despite the on-going investigation into President Trump and the election, despite the terror attack in Manchester, despite that there has been little economic news that traders can grab on to, the stock market this week closed higher each day through Thursday.
The market is up 200 points for the week and will likely hold on to most of the gains through Friday based on stock futures.
- It appears that unless there is a major national or international event that impacts business directly, investors just don’t seem to care and maintain their belief in sustained economic growth.
The new home sales report for the month of April confirmed once again that this data can be volatile.
- Sales plummeted 11.4 percent to an annualized rate of 569,900.
- This is in direct contrast to March and February’s combined upward revision of 40,000.
- The good news is that the 3-month sales average is relatively steady.
- The concern in the report is that even though builders have been cutting prices by as much as 3.0 percent, sales still slowed.
- Year-on-year the median home prices for new home sales is now down 3.8 percent.
The supply of homes increased by only 4,000 for April.
- At the current pace of purchasing, the monthly supply has swelled from 4.9 months up to 5.7 months.
- All regions of the country seemed to suffer this month regarding new home sales.
Continuing the negative trend for April housing was the decline of 2.3 percent in existing home sales.
- The silver lining in the report is that the annual sales rate of 5.570 million is still near the economic recover high.
- A strong positive in the report is that the median home price increased by 3.5 percent for the month.
- Prices compared to the same time last year are up 6.0 percent.
Piggy-backing on the existing home sale report is the Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index.
- The latest figures for March show a monthly increase of 0.6 percent.
- Even stronger within the report is that prices are 6.2 percent higher than the same time last year.
Not surprising is that the Pacific region is the leader of the nine measured areas with a price jump of 7.9 percent.
- The Mountain states rose 0.6 percent to second place overall for a 7.4 percent increase.
- The Middle Atlantic continues to demonstrate the greatest weakness in that it was lower by 0.6 percent for the month and down 3.8 percent from the same time last year.
This week’s potential market moving reports:
- Monday May 29th – Memorial Day, All Markets Closed
- Tuesday May 30th – S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller HPI, Consumer Confidence
- Wednesday May 31st – MBA Mortgage Applications, Pending Home Sales
- Thursday June 1st – ADP Employment Report, Jobless Claims
- Friday June 2nd – National Employment Situation
Joke of the Day:
A broker was dismayed when a brand new real estate office much like her own opened next door and put up a huge sign that said, “BEST AGENTS.”
She was horrified when another competitor opened on the other side and put up an even larger sign saying, “LOWEST COMMISSIONS.”
The broker panicked, until she got an idea. She put up the biggest sign of all over her own real estate office. It read, “MAIN ENTRANCE.”
