US Pending Homes Sales Decreased in June 2012

According to the recent monthly report of the U.S. pending homes sales, which was published yesterday July 26th by the National Association of Realtors, the real estate market has shifted again as pending home sales declined during June: the U.S. pending home sales index decreased in June compared with May’s  index.

The U.S. pending home sales index decreased by 1.4% in June 2012 compared with the May’s index, from 101.1 to 99.3. The June 2012 index was still 9.5 percent above the June 2011 index, which stood back then at 90.7.

This index is a forward looking indicator and considers only the contracts signed and not closed.

This index might suggest that the growth in the U.S. pending home sales has slightly contracted during last month, even though the index rose on a yearly scale. This news of a decrease in pending home sales didn’t seem to curb the rally of the U.S stock markets and the commodities markets. On the other hand, since the financial markets are currently concentrated around the developments in Europe and recent pledge of ECB President to sustain the Euro, the news of the decline in pending home sales may prove to have a lesser effect on the stocks and commodities markets than in the past.  Currently the US dollar is traded down against the Euro; major stock markets and oil prices are rising:

Current Nymex crude oil price, short term futures (August 2012 delivery) is traded up by 1.49%, at $89.45 per barrel.

Current gold price, short term futures (August 2012 delivery) is traded at $ 1,619.7 per t oz. a $7 increase or 0.43%.

Euros to USD is currently traded up at 1.2281.

(* GMT)

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