Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Initial Jobless Claims: Survey 463 Actual 457 Prior 472 Revised 476
Ideally, this will break down to new lows
• New single‐family home sales collapsed in May 2010 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 300,000, the lowest
recorded level of sales in the series' history. The decline reflected an expected payback in sales following the expiration of the
first‐time homebuyers' tax credit on April 30. A high unemployment rate and weak personal finances will remain key constraints
on the demand side through 2010, preventing a sharp rebound in sales. – RGE – Interestingly the home builder ETF (XHB Equity)
plunged initially and rallied the rest of the day. New Home Sales probably aren’t going to zero. Is this the ‘blood in the streets?’
New Home Sales Homebuilders ETF
• By selecting Gen. David H. Petraeus to take charge of the war in Afghanistan, President Obama
has minimized the turmoil of a leadership change and built at least a temporary buffer against growing
concern that his strategy is not demonstrating enough progress against the Taliban. – Washington Post
• Germany – chancellor Merkel, her finance minister, and ECB head Trichet are all on the tape
today defending recent German austerity initiatives and dismissing recent market talk that such moves
will imperil the European economy; George Soros continues to warn that current Germany policies may
be disastrous ‐ "German policy is becoming a danger that could destroy the European Project. A collapse
of the euro cannot be excluded," he told the German weekly Die Zeit