What A Week!

This week had such a slow start one would not have expected such a major swing during the week. To top off the roller coaster, the Existing Home Sales reported an unexpected improvement, posting a gain of 3.9% for February and a revision of 2.7% for January. Home re-sales appear to be turning stronger with gains in four of the last five months, as the level is now 7% above the September cyclical low. Lower mortgage rates and prices help improve affordability and, accordingly, demand. Unsold inventory reached a seven-month high in October and looks to be retreating. The large stock of supply is leading the price decline. Median prices have shown annual declines since August and stand at -2.3% lower year over year in February. In price action, this allowed the US Dollar to take back a bit of its loss from Wednesday’s Fed announcement. The EUR/USD hit a high for 2007 and 2006 this week at 1.3410, but then the US Dollar recouped much of its loss and is going to close out the week near the 1.3285 level. Against the Yen, the USD/JYP hit a low of 117.38, only to push back again and close just above 118.00. Early next week, New Home Sales and Consumer Confidence numbers will be released. Have a great weekend.

David Hilgeman, XPRESSTRADE Analyst