According to the recent U.S. pending homes sales report there was another decrease in pending home sales during August 2011, but the August pending home sales index was still above the August 2010 index.
The US pending home sales index declined by 1.2% in August 2011 compared with the July 2011 index, from 89.7 to 88.6. The August index is still 7.7 percent above the August 2010 index that stood back then at 82.3.
This index is a forward looking indicator and considers only the contracts signed and not closing.
This index might suggest an ongoing weakening of the U.S. real estate market as it did in the past months. This news of a slowdown in the real estate market coincides with the recent news of the other housing indicators including the decrease in US new home sales.
Despite the recent news of a slowdown in pending home sales, it didn’t affect much oil prices as they are currently traded up.
Current Nymex crude oil price, short term futures (October 2011 delivery) is traded up by 1.34%, at $82.30 per barrel as of 16:21*.
Current gold price, short term futures (October 2011 delivery) is traded at $ 1,616 per t oz. a $2.1 decrease or 0.13%, as of 16:16*.
Euros to USD is currently traded up at 1.3641 a 0.7246% increase as of 16:24*.
(* GMT)
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