U.S. jobless claims and existing home sales will dominate the scheduled events of the day, along with testimony from New York Fed President Timothy Geithner (voter) and SEC Chairman Chris Cox. Meanwhile, European markets will be paying attention to the release of the Belgian business confidence index and comments from Bank of England Deputy Governor Charles Bean.
After the U.S. House of Representatives passed a housing bill including provisions for the creation of a new GSE regulator and a liquidity backstop to help the beleaguered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson expressed his gratitude for the bill having passed quickly.
"As I have said before, the GSE portions of this bill are orders of magnitude more important to turning the corner on the housing correction and...
Initial claims for unemployment benefits in the United States soared to 406k in the week ending July 19, the highest level since March, according to the Department of Labor on Thursday. Economists said July data has been volatile, but the latest data is a reliable indicator of weakness in the jobs market.
U.S. existing home sales fell 2.6% to 4.86 million units in June following May's unrevised sales figure of 4.99 million. This is the fourth month home sales have remained under the five million mark, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Speaking in a Bloomberg Television interview, noted hawk Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Chuck Plosser said the Fed may have to hike rates even as housing prices continue to fall.
Plosser commented that the economy has not changed much in the last few months and that rising prices pose the biggest challenge to the economy. Plosser noted that...
Economic conditions across the U.S. "slowed somewhat," according to the Fed's Beige Book on Wednesday. Five of the 12 districts were said to have weakened since the last report six weeks ago, while Chicago's economy was "sluggish" and growth in Kansas City had moderated. The remaining three districts saw slight increases in activity.
Residential real estate markets "remained sluggish in a majority of districts," the report said, with residential real estate lending and consumer lending showing more weakness than commercial lending.
Although he is not pleased with some parts of the housing bill, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said it was easy for him to recommend to President George W. Bush to sign a housing rescue package into law on Wednesday.
Rates for both short- and long-term mortgages tumbled last week according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released the results of its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ended July 18 on Wednesday. Mortgage activity as measured by the volume of loan applications...
Economists largely agree that the Beige Book document to be released Wednesday by the Federal Reserve won't receive extended attention from markets, which are more concerned with forward-looking data. The report will likely say that economic conditions are soft across the country, with a few pockets of exceptional weakness and moderate growth.
Weekly mortgage applications in the United States declined in the week ending July 18, according to data released from the Mortgage Bankers' Association (MBA) on Wednesday, which reported a 6.2% week-over-week fall in applications.