According to the recent monthly update of the U.S. pending homes sales, which was published yesterday August 29th by the National Association of Realtors, the real estate market has shifted again as pending home sales rose during July: the U.S. pending home sales index increased in June compared with June’s index.
The U.S. pending home sales index increased by 2.4% in July 2012 compared with the June’s index, from 99.3 to 101.7. The July 2012 index was also 12.4 percent above the July 2011 index, which stood back then at 90.5.
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 slightly expanded during last month, and that the index also rose on a yearly scale. This news of a growth in pending home sales didn’t seem to affect much the U.S stock markets and the commodities markets. On the other hand, since the financial markets are currently concentrated around the developments in U.S regarding the future steps of the FOMC, the Republic Conference and Hurricane Isaac, the news of the modest rise 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 up against the Euro; major stock markets and oil prices are trading down:
Current Nymex crude oil price, short term futures (September 2012 delivery) is traded down by 0.23%, at $95.27 per barrel.
Current gold price, short term futures (September 2012 delivery) is traded at $ 1,660.5 per t oz. a $2.5 decrease or 0.15%.
Euros to USD is currently traded up at 1.2553.
(* GMT)
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