US existing home sales slightly fell in June 2011

Following yesterday’s report published by the U.S. Census Bureau vis-à-vis the housing starts and building permits in which these statistics improved in June compared with May’s figures, today the National Association of Realtors published its recent report on US existing homes sales for June 2011.

According to the report, the number of US existing home sales moderately declined in June compared to May. The seasonally adjusted annual rate reached in June to 4.77 million home sales compared with an annual rate of 4.81 million home sales in May 2011, a 0.8% drop, and an 8.8% decline from the 5.23 million home sales (annual rate) in June 2010.

According to Roache et. al (2008) there is suppose to be a lagged negative effect of this news on crude oil prices:  Historically, this report had a positive lagged effect on crude oil prices, even when controlling for the effect of the US dollar. This relation however isn’t reliable and there might be other factors that will push crude oil prices in the opposite direction that will cancel the effect of this news on the oil market.

Current Nymex crude oil price, short term futures (August 2011 delivery) is traded up by 1.06%, at $98.53 per barrel as of 16:14*.

Current gold price, short term futures (August 2011 delivery) is traded at $1,596.60 per t oz. a $4.5 decrease or 0.28%, as of 16:04*.

Euros to USD is currently traded down at 1.4194 a 0.2727% increase as of 17:21*.

 

(* GMT)

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