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The National Association of Realtors released the Pending Home Sales Index for December today. The Pending Home Sales index measures housing contract activity. It is based on signed real estate contracts for existing single-family homes, condos and co-ops. A signed contract is not counted as a sale until the transaction closes. Instead, when a seller accepts a sales contract on a property, it is recorded into a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as a “pending home sale.” Once that transaction...

Instead of complaining about tight underwriting guidelines and expensive LLPAs at the only game in town (GSEs, FHA, VA), the NAR should be calling out Congress to act on GSE Reform ASAP! Private funding needed!...

Stocks are mixed this morning, which seems an appropriate response to the latest Consumer Sentiment report. Ninety minutes into the session, the S&P 500 is climbing back towards par but remains down 0.32%, while the Dow is flat, and the Nasdaq is 0.99% below Thursday’s close. The 10-year yield continues to moderate from 4.00% earlier in the week to 3.79% today. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar is moving higher against the Yen and Euro, while oil has fallen about 1%. The main release of the morning...

In its largest single monthly decline, RBC's Consumer Attitudes and Spending by Household (CASH) Index showed the economic crisis is driving down consumer confidence in the U.S. The index dropped 32 points in October, the largest single-month decline...

The Conference Board's U.S. consumer confidence index for August improved to 56.9 in Tuesday's report, higher than the expected improvement to 53.0.

"Consumer confidence readings suggest that the economy remains stuck in neutral, but may be showing signs of improvement by early next year...

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The preliminary consumer sentiment survey from Reuters & the University of Michigan improved half a point to 61.7, following the previous month's near five-point rebound. Also, one-year inflation expectations moved down to 4.8% from July's 5.1% forecast.

The slight improvement contrasts with the recent deterioration in the weekly survey of consumer comfort from ABC News.

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Consumer confidence for July and the S&P/Case- Shiller's home price index for May will be the main focus of Tuesday's economic events with no major macroeconomic releases expected for Canada. Across the Atlantic, market participants will also be looking out for preliminary results of German CPI for July.

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The preliminary consumer sentiment survey from Reuters and the University of Michigan rebounded for the first time since January, reaching a score of 56.6 in July from June's reading of 56.4.

The consensus was expecting a further decline to 55.5.

According to the report, 90% of respondents said they thought the U.S. economy was in recession, with the downturn expected to deepen further.

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