A gain of 1.8% had been reported previously. The Australian dollar and Thai baht also pushed higher. According to the National Association of Home Builders Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, builder confidence in the market for newly constructed single-family homes declined three points to 62 in November from an upwardly revised October reading.
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Overall permit issuance rose 4.1% to 1.15 million units in October. The euro rose 0.6% against the dollar. Single-family permits increased 2.4% to 711,000.
“Weaker overall world growth, particularly in emerging markets, means all that excess capacity which has been created and is still being created won’t be absorbed for a long time”, said London & Capital Investment Director Ashok Shah.
“Going forward, with a rate hike becoming an increasingly likely possibility near-term, a rising rate environment will likely temper demand for housing further without an equally large offset increasing consumers’ ability to finance a home purchase”.
Another report worth noting has to do with inflation, specifically what consumers pay at the cash register. It’s been closely watched by the Fed as an indicator as when it may increase interest rates. While two-year yields rose 3 basis points, those on 30-year paper actually dipped a basis point.
The New Zealand dollar is strong from yesterday’s close, climbing to $0.866 Canadian. “Slow just says we’re following economic conditions”, Mark Kepner, an equity trader at Themis Trading LLC in Chatham, NJ., said by phone.
It is becoming clear that the most important Central bank meeting in December is not that of the Federal Reserve but instead the European Central Bank on December 3rd.
The minutes showed that conditions for beginning the policy normalisation process “may well be met” by the meeting next month.
“At this point, the Fed’s credibility is on the line”.
“The pullback seen in the United States dollar in the wake of the Fed minutes does seem to reflect a lot of uncertainty around the pace of rate hikes by the Fed”, Angus Nicholson of IG told clients in an email.
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However, most members felt the new wording would underscore that they had not made a decision on a rate hike but that “it may well become appropriate” to start raising rates in December if the data show the economy performing as expected. In other words, there will still be plenty of monetary stimulus to placate markets. Lower prices have led a few miners to cut output, but many have been able to maintain their margins due to reduced costs, allowing them to keep producing in already oversupplied markets. “Despite lackluster third quarter growth, the economic outlook now appears to be improving”. We are historically still low and even if we do see a rate rise we will continue to still be in a historically low rate environment. But investors have doubts about the pace of interest-rate increases thereafter, said Sireen Harajli, foreign-exchange strategist at Mizuho Bank.
