The Case-Schiller HPI showed a year over year drop of 1.9% in US house prices. This refers to the top 20 urban areas.
A drop of 2.4% was expected after last month’s 2.7% drop. On a month-over-month basis, prices actually rose by 0.67%, more than double the early expectations of a rise of 0.3%.
USD/JPY and EUR/USD are both rising – a mild “risk on” reaction.
Housing data has been relatively encouraging of late. Building permits rose nicely and so have new home sales. However, existing home sales and housing starts are somewhat flat.
The US housing sector seems to be bottoming out at the moment. This may discourage the Fed in any additional quantitative easing. One of the key concerns of the Federal Reserve was the housing sector.
With long term yields at historic lows and house prices slowly moving up, there’s no reason to act in the near future.
The CB Consumer Confidence figure is next. See how to trade it with USD/JPY.
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