Wednesday, February 24, 2010

• The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price

Index fell 1.12% in the 4th Qtr. The index,
which is not seasonally adjusted, rose
3.04% and 3.31% in the second and third
quarters and fell 7.36% in last year’s
fourth quarter. Year-over-year, the rate
of decline slowed to -2.51% in 2009
compared to -18.25% in 2008

• Home purchase Loan Demand at Lowest since 1997

Applications for Home Purchases - Mortgage Bankers Association

This index includes all mortgage applications for the purchase of single family homes. This can be a good
indicator of impending home sales. However, be careful about looking into the most recent readings too
much as about half the country was covered in deep snow. And that does affect economic data.

• Greece – headlines today - 1) reports signal that the country could attempt to launch a bond issue
sometime this week but timing is still uncertain and could slip to next week, 2) Greek Workers Stage 24-
Hr Strike Over Austerity Plan, 3) a lawmaker with the German Christian Social Union said it is legally
impossible to give state aid to Greece, and 4) U.S. bond investors are showing little interest in
purchasing new Greek government debt
• Short selling – majority of the SEC’s 5 commissioners will vote today to temporarily restrict short
sales of a co’s stock once it falls 10%. When the 10 percent threshold is triggered, traders could only
execute short sales for the stock at a price above the market’s best bid – Bloomberg
• “Volcker Rules” to be watered down in the Senate – Sen Banking Committee Chairman Dodd will
unveil a plan that would grant regulators the ability to limit and potentially ban prop trading at banks
although will stop short of imposing an outright ban. Under the proposal, regulators would examine
banks on a case-by-case basis and would be able to direct them to limit or halt certain activities they felt
were a systemic risk. WSJ – at first glance, this seems to make more sense than a one-size-fits-all ban.
• Dems say goodbye to Wall St? The securities and investment industry gave 2 to 1 to Democrats in
early 2009 but sent nearly half its donations to Republicans by year's end – Washington Post/Reuters –
not sure I would call that ‘saying good-bye’ as they are still giving more than half of their donations to
democrats…it’s more like they are simply hedging their bets.