May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Sales of U.S. previously owned homes increased 7.6 percent to a 5.77 million annual rate in April, the highest level in five months, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. Bloomberg's Mike McKee reports. (Source: Bloomberg)
Monday, May 24, 2010
U.S. Stocks Drop as Dow Erases May 21 Rally on Europe
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Deborah Kostroun reports on the performance of the U.S. equity market today. U.S. stocks sank, dragging the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its lowest level in three months, as the seizure of a Spanish bank and increase in bank borrowing costs spurred concern Europes debt crisis has further to go. Bloomberg's Pimm Fox also speaks. (Source: Bloomberg)
Investors Pour Cash Into Gold, Treasuries
May 24, 2010 — FBN's Ashley Webster weighs in on market safe-havens.
Bob Chapman : Mortgage purchase applications sank 27.1 percent to the lowest level since May 1997
Bob Chapman on Dr Deagle Show
Bob Chapman the global economy is failing , Extract from THE INTERNATIONAL FORECASTER of SATURDAY, MAY 22, 2010 :
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Mortgage purchase applications sank 27.1 percent to the lowest level since May 1997 in the absence of the popular government support, the group said. U.S. housing groped for footing after more than a year of homebuyer tax credits worth up to $8,000 expired on April 30. Requests for home purchase loans have fallen almost 20 percent over the past month despite low borrowing costs. "It's disturbing," said John Canally, economist at LPL Financial in Boston.
"It seems that every other data point for housing is pretty good -- high affordability, low interest rates, relatively low inventory, home prices are up -- so I'm leaning toward the hangover from the tax credit but I'm going to need to see a couple of more weeks of data." Overall loan requests were down 1.5 percent, on a seasonally adjusted basis, in the week ended May 14, cushioned by a 14.5 percent jump in mortgage refinancing applications as home loan rates neared historic lows.
Average 30-year mortgage rates fell 0.13 percentage point last week to 4.83 percent, the lowest since last November, the MBA said. The record low was 4.61 percent in March 2009, based on the group's survey, which has been conducted since 1990.
Refinancing applications jumped to a nine-week high and accounted for about 68 percent of all applications last week.
But buyers took a low profile after rushing en masse to take advantage of the tax incentive. "The data continue to suggest that the tax credit pulled sales into April at the expense of the remainder of the spring buying season," Michael Fratantoni, the industry group's vice president of research and economics, said in a statement.
The MBA separately reported that total U.S. home loans that are late paying or in foreclosure eased in the first quarter but remained near record highs, largely because the country's unemployment rate remains elevated.
One out of seven U.S. households with a mortgage ended the first quarter late on payments or in the foreclosure process.
With the tax credits gone, home shoppers will take more time to find the right property, said Marc Demetriou, branch manager/mortgage consultant at Residential Home Funding Corp in Bloomingdale, New Jersey.
"Unemployment is definitely still an issue and inventory is still an issue, but it's definitely a buyer's market," he said. However, "people that were serious about buying worked very hard and spent a lot of time and effort to find the right house to get in for April 30," when the tax credit expired,
U.S. borrowers have gotten a hand from Europe, on worry that roughly $1 trillion in emergency funding might not be enough to stabilize euro zone debt markets. Investors have fled for the safest securities, slicing the U.S. Treasury yields that are used as a peg for mortgage rates.
Low borrowing costs and stabilizing home prices are being offset by the near double-digit U.S. unemployment rate and a looming supply of foreclosed properties yet to hit the market. The worst of the housing crisis is over but recovery will be long and slow, most economists agree."
Mr. Chapman also known as The International Forecaster is a 74 years old. He was born in Boston, MA and attended Northeastern University majoring in business management. He spent three years in the U. S. Army Counterintelligence, mostly in Europe. He speaks German and French and is conversant in Spanish. He lived in Europe for six years, off and on, three years in Africa, a year in Canada and a year in the Bahamas.
Mr. Chapman became a stockbroker in 1960 and retired in 1988. For 18 of those years he owned his own brokerage firm. He was probably the largest gold and silver stockbroker in the world during that period. When he retired he had over 6,000 clients.
Bob Chapman : you got to remove these people from the government
Starting in 1967 Mr. Chapman began writing articles on business, finance, economics and politics having been printed and reprinted over the years in over 200 publications. He owned and wrote the Gary Allen Report, which had 30,000 subscribers. He currently is owner and editor of The International Forecaster, a compendium of information on business, finance, economics and social and political issues worldwide, which reaches 10,000 investors and brokers monthly directly, and parts of his publication are picked up by 60 different websites weekly exposing his ideas to over 10 million investors a week.
In June of 1991, at the request of business associates, and due to retirement boredom, he began writing the International Forecaster.
Bob Chapman : do not expect the government to guarantee your bank account , it is bankrupt
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