U.S. New Home Sales Edged Down in October 2012

Today, the U.S. Census Bureau reported (opens pdf) on the changes in number of new homes sold in the U.S during October 2012: the number of new homes sales edged down compared with the number of new homes sold during September 2012.

According to the recent report, during October 2012 the annual rate of number of U.S new home sales reached 368,000 (seasonally adjusted); this figure is 0.3 percent below the revised annual rate in September 2012 of 369,000 sales, but it is still 17.2% above the annual rate in October 2011.

The median sales price of new dwellings sold in October 2012 declined to reach $237,700.

Currently this news doesn’t seem to affect much the U.S stock markets as the market. For now, the U.S stock markets including NASDAQ and S&P500 are slightly declining.

In the commodities markets, many commodities including gold, oil and natural gas are trading down.

Moreover, precious metals are currently trading sharply down. There is a tendency of a negative relation (that should be taken with a grain of salt) between the shifts in new home sales and bullion prices: as the number of homes sold decline, precious metals tend to increase.

Current gold price, short term futures (short term 2012 delivery) is traded at $1,711.5 per t oz. a $33.3 decrease or 1.91%, as of 15:06*.

Current silver price, short term futures (short term 2012 delivery) is traded at $33.2 per t oz. a $0.87 decrease or 2.57%, as of 15:06*.

(* GMT)

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