February 23, 2009
February 23, 2009 by admin
The stock market appears to be locked in on testing the sub 7,000 levels. Despite a new round of pledges to help strugling banks (Citigroup) and ease the fears of bank nationalization, there is no magic formula that will help pull the stock market out of its recent free fall. The market is now in six year low territory and there remains little evidence of a turnaround in the near future. As more companie downgrade their earning and corporations continue to eliminate jobs, the market is pricing in what could very well be an economic recession that continues to get worse before getting better.
On the housing front, last weeks reports on housing starts is a clear indication on the massive pullback that is occuring on the home building front. Fixed mortgage rates remain very attractive, the yield on the ten year bond remains well under 3 percent and has provided a nice 3 month window for consumers to refinance into lower rates as well as new home buyers to lock in near historic low rates, keeping house payments low and freeing up extra money for the economy.