Happy Independence Day and The Market Update July 3

Wishing you and yours a safe and exciting celebration this Independence Day!

Thoughts to Ponder . . .

• If Cinderella’s shoe fit perfectly, then why did it fall off?
• All generalizations are false, including this one.
• Yes officer I saw the speed limit, I just didn’t see your car.
• Never wrestle with a pig. You’ll both get dirty, and the pig likes it.
• I think it’s wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly.

And Now on to The Market Update . . .

 Case-Shiller’s Home Price Index

• In recent weeks, I have been mentioning how the Summer and Fall housing markets are being predicted, by some experts, to be far above average.
• We should hope they are correct on account that the early Spring market was a rather large disappointment.
• The latest Case-Shiller’s home price index increased by a rather small 0.3 percent in April.
• In February home prices were up by 6.0 percent from the same time in the prior year.
• However, for the month of March, the year-on-year rate slipped back down to 5.7 percent.
• This is the first reversal in year-on-year spread in a very long time.
• To the surprise of many, San Francisco home prices dropped 0.6 percent in the month.
• Boston was down by 0.7 percent and Cleveland declined by 1.0 percent.
• Not surprising is Seattle leading the country with a year-on-year spread up by 12.9 percent.

Pending Home Sales

• Even Pending homes sales for the month.
• May was the 3^rd month in a row of decline with a jaw dropping 0.8 percent.
• This is in direct contrast to expert predictions of a 0.5 percent gain.
• The weakness in the housing market is spread evenly throughout regions across the country.
• The West, usually the strongest market, declined by 1.3 percent, which was the largest decline recorded for the month.
• Although the data on final home sales does not always move in lock-step with the pending home sales data, this most recent report could prove troubling for future final sales data.

This week’s potential market moving reports are:

• Monday July 3^rd – ISM Mfg Index, Construction Spending
• Tuesday July 4^th – Independence Day Celebration – All Markets Closed
• Wednesday July 5^th – MBA Mortgage Applications, Factory Orders, FOMC Minutes
• Thursday July 6^th – First Time Jobless Claims, ADP Employment Report
• Friday July 7^th – National Employment Situation