US home sales surprise to the upside<\/b> <\/p>\n
The US Census Bureau reported that sales of new homes rose by 20.5% month on month, beating analysts\u2019 forecasts. The result may indicate a budding recovery in consumer confidence after months of uncertainty linked to US trade policy. Even so, several real-estate specialists characterise the jump as atypical and expect a subsequent reversion towards more normal levels. <\/p>\n
New-home sales account for roughly 10% of the overall US housing market. Today\u2019s reading marks a three-year high and may be associated with lower mortgage reference rates, which are at their lowest in the past 12 months. Thirty-year mortgage rates are currently around 6.26% (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis). That said, the series\u2014especially for new single-family homes\u2014is volatile; sustained evidence over coming months would be required before assigning greater macroeconomic significance to the signal. <\/p>\n
US indices fall on Powell\u2019s tone<\/b> <\/p>\n
The main US indices recorded a second straight decline following cautious remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell. He reiterated that FOMC members will proceed \u201cmeeting by meeting\u201d, avoiding pre-emptive moves. While acknowledging a cooling labour market, he also highlighted the risk of an inflation rebound. <\/p>\n
Powell further noted that, although the Fed does not currently see financial-stability risks, \u201cprices are at elevated levels\u201d across risk assets such as equities. In essence, policymakers will await additional data to underpin future decisions, given several unresolved sources of uncertainty. Attention now turns to Friday\u2019s PCE inflation data. <\/p>\n
US equities finished lower across the board: the S&P 500 \u22120.28%, the Dow Jones \u22120.37%, and the Nasdaq 100 \u22120.31%. In Europe, performance was mixed, with the CAC 40 \u22120.57%, while the DAX and IBEX 35 rose 0.23% and 0.24%, respectively. <\/p>\n
Dollar higher on Fed cautious tone<\/b> <\/p>\n
The Dollar Index recovered by about 0.66% after Powell declined to commit to an aggressive pace of cuts in yesterday\u2019s press conference. The euro fell 0.63% against the dollar, while the pound dropped 0.55%, the yen 0.82%, and the Swiss franc around 0.50%. Despite last week\u2019s 25 bps reduction in the policy rate, Powell\u2019s remarks left a residual restrictive bias in place, helping the DXY hold technical support near 97.50. <\/p>\n
Crude oil inventories boost prices<\/b> <\/p>\n
US Energy Information Administration crude-oil inventories registered another draw, contrary to expectations. Consensus looked for a +0.8 million-barrel build, but a \u22120.607 million-barrel decline was reported, suggesting demand remains firm. Brent and WTI futures advanced by 1.23% and 2.49%, respectively. <\/p>\n
Additional support likely came from reports of Ukrainian attacks on oil extraction sites in Russia\u2019s Volgograd region. Geopolitical risk premia also widened after comments by US President Donald Trump indicating that Ukraine could recover Russian-occupied territories, reducing the likelihood that existing sanctions on Russia will be lifted. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US home sales surprise to the upside The US Census Bureau reported that sales of new homes rose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[79,18,19,17,188],"class_list":{"0":"post-83715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-markets","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-markets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}