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Options Expiration day is today. With major indices all trading at resistance levels of one kind or another and oil hitting new record highs today should provide for some wild action today.
The housing starts data was released a few minutes ago. Headline data shows an increase in the housing starts, but looking under the hood shows that single family home construction is still declining while apartment complexes (multi family) is on a rapid rise. Home builders realize that more and more people will be renters in the future as less people will be able to afford to buy.
Futures did spike on the headline, but quickly pulled back once the hood was lifted on the data.
US HOUSING STARTS TABLE
APR. MAR. FEB.
Housing Starts 1,032 954 1,107
Percent Change 8.2
Single Family 692 704 722
Percent Change -1.7
Multi Family 362 232 356 Northeast 89 102 129
Percent Change 40.5
Percent Change -12.7
Midwest 158 127 154
Percent Change 24.4
South 516 498 577
Percent Change 3.6
West 269 227 247
Percent Change 18.5
Building Permits 978 932 981
Percent Change 4.9
Unadjusted
Building Permits 89 77.4 73.4
Housing Starts 92.4 79.4 78.4
Entries (RSS)
May 16th, 2008 at 10:26 am
One factor to consider is the unkown/not reported # of condo construction that were already in progress and being changed over to apartments because of the weak demand for single family/ condo dwellings. The glut of these could overshadow the uptick in this mornings #. Who knows?