| Global Market Wrap-Up - February 22, 2012 |
February 22, 2012 - 6:40pm — mhanna
U.S. stocks sold off Wednesday as a weaker than expected housing report, and an overbought market conspired to create a modest selloff. The S&P 500 fell 0.3% and NASDAQ 0.5%
Mark Hanna, known in the financial community as "TraderMark," provides his insightful daily market coverage in this column, exclusive to Euro Pacific Capital.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Please feel free to repost with proper attribution and all links included.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
By:
Mark Hanna - Sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose in January to the highest level since May 2010 as investors took advantage of lower prices to buy distressed properties. Purchases climbed 4.3 percent to a 4.57 million annual rate, less than forecast, from a revised 4.38 million pace in December that was slower than previously estimated.
- The median price of a previously-owned home fell 2 percent to $154,700 from $157,900 in January 2011.
- Distressed sales, comprised of foreclosures and short sales in which the lender agrees to a transaction for less than the balance of the mortgage, accounted for 35 percent of the total in January, up from 32 percent a month earlier.
Gold rose $12.80 to end at $1,771.30 an ounce, which was a high for the year. Silver fell 17.5 cents to end at $34.254 an ounce, while crude oil added 3 cents to $106.28 per barrel.
British shares fell 0.2%, German shares 0.9% and French shares 0.55
- In Europe, services and manufacturing unexpectedly shrank in February. A euro-area composite index based on a survey of purchasing managers in both industries dropped to 49.7 from 50.4 in January, London-based Markit Economics said in an initial estimate.
- Fitch ratings agency downgraded Greece further into junk status Wednesday, to a rating of C, one notch above default.
- The preliminary reading of HSBC's China manufacturing index rose from 48.8 in January to 49.7 in February. But the number was still below the 50-level that signifies expansion.
Mark Hanna, known in the financial community as "TraderMark," provides his insightful daily market coverage in this column, exclusive to Euro Pacific Capital.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Please feel free to repost with proper attribution and all links included.
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