mlk_man said:
Building permits down, housing starts up?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060620/bs_afp/forexus_060620220901
Housing starts increased 5.0 percent to an annualized pace of 1.957 million units, which was ahead of the average Wall Street forecast of 1.950 million.
But analysts said the rise was effectively a statistical quirk, resulting from a rebound from sharp declines, and predicted the key economic sector will continue to cool.
"Despite May's good numbers, starts will continue to fall in the coming months," said Patrick Newport at Global Insight.
"Inventories of new unsold homes are at a record high, prices are softening -- forcing builders to cut prices -- builder confidence is plummeting, and permits are down. We are expecting starts to drop about eight percent in both 2006 and 2007."
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000100&sid=avGcj_tSsBmc
The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits probably rose to 305,000 last week, after falling to 295,000 in the week ended June 10, according to the median forecast of 35 economists in a survey before a report tomorrow.
The Conference Board's leading index, which forecasts the economic outlook for the next three to six months, fell 0.5 percent in May after dropping 0.1 percent in April, the median of 53 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey showed. The New York- based group releases the data at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow.
`Dollar Weakness'
``The economy appears to be slowing, and the trend is for dollar weakness,'' said Nobuo Ibaraki, deputy general currency manager in Tokyo at Nomura Trust and Banking Co. Ltd., a unit of Japan's largest brokerage. The dollar may fall to $1.2650 against the euro and to 114.20 versus the yen today, Ibaraki said.