U.S. Pending Home Sales Fell in April 2012

According to the recent U.S. pending homes sales monthly report, which was published today May 30th by the National Association of Realtors, the real estate market has shifted again as pending home sales decreased during April 2012; furthermore the U.S. pending home sales index also  fell in April compared with thee  March 2012 index.

The U.S. pending home sales index decreased by 5.5% in April 2012 compared with the March 2012 index, from a revised figure of 101.1 to 95.5. The April 2012 index was still 14.4 percent above the April 2011 index, which stood back then at 83.5.

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 contracted during last month, despite the recent rise in this index on a yearly scale. This news of a decrease in pending home sales might not help the U.S stock markets and the commodities markets. On the other hand, since the financial markets are more concentrated around the ongoing debt crisis in Europe and the future of Greece in the EU, the news of the decline in pending home sales may prove to have a lesser effect on the Forex and commodities markets than in the past.  Currently the US dollar is traded up against the Euro, while major stock markets and oil prices are tumbling down:

Current Nymex crude oil price, short term futures (June 2012 delivery) is traded down by 3.04%, at $88.00 per barrel as of 16:24*.

Current gold price, short term futures (June 2012 delivery) is traded at $ 1,552.1 per t oz. a $1.1 increase or 0.07%, as of 16:12*.

Euros to USD is currently traded up at 1.2396 a 0.86% decrease as of 16:24*.

(* GMT)

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