Existing home sales plunged 7.1% MoM in February, massively missing expectations of a 3.0% drop. Absent the regulation-driven drop in November, this is the largest MoM drop since July 2010 as realtors warn that "home prices and rents outpacing wages and anxiety about the health of the economy are holding back a segment of would-be buyers."
Median prices appear to have ended in an airpocket:
As NAR reports,
Back in October, we tried to "tie the Valeant roll-up together: Presenting The Goldman "Missing Link" in which we showed that Howard Schiller, Valeant's CFO from December 2011 to June 2015, previously ran Goldman Sachs’ health-care practice until 2009, when he became the chief operating officer of Goldman’s investment bank. The next year, the bank advised Valeant on its breakout purchase of Biovail Corp.
After last week's ridiculous FOMC announcement which forced even such "party line" commentators as Steve Liesman to ask Yellen if the Fed has lost all credibility after its dots tumbled despite surging core inflation and a mandate low unemployment rate, one can be forgiven if all they laugh at the latest Fed "forecast."
Despite the reversal (lower) in stocks, bond prices are tumbling (yields surging) this morning, seemingly catalyzed by yet another sudden surge in crude oil prices. Algos appear to have read comments on shale production coming back as bullish - well if they are producing more, there must be more demand right? At the same time - starting around 530ET, stocks are bonds began to both sell off, unwinding the post-Fed "QE Trade" bounce.
Crude is rallying as bonds dump...
After January's hopeful spike to 6 month highs, Chicago Fed's National Activity Index plunged back into contraction (at -0.29) near 2 year lows.
A shockingly large 58 of the 85 individual indiators within the index made negative contributions to the overall index which printed notably below the lowest economist's expectations.