Rachel Rosson's Real Estate Blog

The stock markets ended fairly strong after the Senate passed a $15 billion jobs creation bill. The Dow ended y up 91 points while the Nasdaq gained 22 points. The bond market ended flat from starting out negative from this morning. January's New Home Sales report was posted late this morning, showing a surprising drop in sales of newly constructed homes. The 11.2% decline in sales last month dropped them to their lowest level on record. That indicates that the housing sector is not as stabile as some wanted to believe and can be good news for the bond market. However, this data covered only approximately 15% of all home sales in the U.S. Friday's Existing Home Sales report tracks the other 85% of sales. Chairman Bernanke delivered the Fed's semi-annual testimony on the status of the economy to the House Financial Services Committee. During his prepared statement he indicated concern about the employment sector and the unemployment rate that is expected to remain high for quite some time. He also said that he expects inflation to remain under control. Both were good news for the bond market and helped move bonds into positive ground.