U.S. Pending Home Sales Up in May

According to the recent monthly report of the U.S. pending homes sales, which was published today June 27th by the National Association of Realtors, the real estate market has shifted again as pending home sales rose during May: the U.S. pending home sales index increased in May compared with April’s index.

The U.S. pending home sales index increased by 5.9% in May 2012 compared with the April’s index, from 95.5 to 101.1. The May 2012 index was also 13.3 percent above the May 2011 index, which stood back then at 89.2.

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, along with the rise in this index on a yearly scale. This news of an increase in pending home sales might help the U.S stock markets and the commodities markets to pull back up. On the other hand, since the financial markets are currently concentrated around the debt crisis in Europe and the upcoming EU Summit to be held tomorrow, the news of the 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 slightly up against the Euro; major stock markets and oil prices are also rising:

Current Nymex crude oil price, short term futures (July 2012 delivery) is traded up by 1.49%, at $80.54 per barrel as of 22:10*.

Current gold price, short term futures (July 2012 delivery) is traded at $ 1,574.7 per t oz. a $0.2 decrease or 0.01%, as of 22:14*.

Euros to USD is currently traded up at 1.2469 as of 22:14*.

(* GMT)

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