Business

Extending July's weakness (in new, existing, and pending home sales), August is off to a rough start with existing sales and now new home sales has collapsed (down 3.4% vs expectations of a 2.5% gain). July's big plunge in sales was revised slightly higher but this left August with a 560k SAAR sales rate - the weakest since Dec 2016.

This is the first back to back decline in new home sales since June 2016.

Bloomberg does not that there may be caveats to this data (aren't there always?).

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

I have been getting a tremendous number of emails as of late asking if the latest rally in oil prices, and related energy stocks, is sustainable or is it another “trap” as has been witnessed previously.

With geopolitical turmoil mounting, for North Korea to Iran, and as natural disasters have rocked the refinery capital of the world (Houston,) the question is not surprising.

By all appearances it seems the market has now reduced the half-life of global nuclear armageddon threats to around 20 hours as Gold's gains have been erased overnight and USDJPY retraced its losses...

Despite a slew of disappointing sales (new, existing, and pending), Case-Shiller reports national home prices rose 5.94% YoY - the fastest rise since June 2014 - hitting a new record high (now over 5% above 2006's peak).

It has now been 36 straight months that the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-City Compoosite home price index has risen at approximately 5 to 6% annually and it has been 62 months without any YoY price drops...

Gains in New York and Los Angeles dominated the annual performance.

"Gold prices to reach $1,400 before the end of the year" - GoldCore

by MarketWatch

Gold finished sharply higher on Monday, recouping roughly half of last week’s loss, as declines in the U.S. stock market and growing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea lifted prices for the yellow metal to the highest settlement in more than a week.