EUR

pundix talkin down trend euro..with poke back to 1.3300..will play this....perhaps more upside surprise..patience..

chf/jpy 1/2 still going south....

munching rum cakes.....and da peace pipe..

yes a sort of catch-22

more construction more building approvals : less chance to bring
those homes to market. if however then home price index tumbles.
Construction becomes too expensive , job losses, etc.
The best solution is a civil war all homes get burned off or bombed or Napalm ....
insurances won't pay for damages due to war...
everything ok.

yeah, we all folly, one way or another :-)

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100474481

What you think of this George? Sounds as bad as french chefs !

I feel the FOMC minutes and all the intra related bla from FOMC voting members is contrived to control the usd. Bernanke will continue asset buying. He be da skipper and the US economy is still in deep shit if truth be known. Yes we get a few mirages along the way but how often do you hear about the 13 million single family homes still in distress, effectively out of the market with banks holding back. Here is some research from a good american trader friend of mine.

"About a third of (single family) homes are unencumbered by a mortgage and are owned free and clear. About another third have between 0% and 10% equity. Because it costs about 10% to sell a home, for practical purposes this group has no equity. The last third consists of the homeowners who are in a negative equity situation -- they owe more than the property is worth.

Of those with no equity to negative equity (i.e. 67% of single family homes) 20% are in default (13 million homes), in other words 90 days late on mortgage payment. The probability than any of these loans will be brought current and that the borrowers will be allowed to stay in their homes is essentially zero. These homes will be sold short or foreclosed on at some point.

Since two-thirds of homes are ineligible for sale unless their lender approves them for a short sale or forecloses on them, buyers have been forced to compete for the limited supply of housing being made available by the third of homeowners who have equity and can sell or by builders of new homes.

This manipulation of increasing demand for mortgages by the Fed and a not-commensurate increase in supply of homes by the banks is providing the ILLUSION that housing is rebounding, as it forces up the price at which homes transfer.

From the perspective of gaming confidence into the market, that's great, but the banks still have to bring those 13 million properties with nonperforming mortgages to the market.

At the current rate of home sales, assuming no more mortgages become nonperforming and builders stop building and everyone who owns a home refuses to sell, and the only properties allowed to be sold are those encumbered by nonperforming loans or already foreclosed on, it would take three years for these properties to be sold"

Secret Samurai.