Planet Wealth

The sellers jumped on the open pushing the slightly higher futures to the downside in early trade.  A great earnings report from D.R. Horton was basically ignored.  The nations largest homebuilder posted a surprising profit in the quarter when the analysts were unanimous in expecting a loss.  As mentioned above however, that report was basically ignored.  Later the National Association of Realtors said its index of sales contracts actually rose 1% in December.  Most pundits were expecting a decline following the big number in November.  The November number was skewed as many homebuyers rushed to take advantage of the tax credit that was due to expire in November.  Therefore, December was expected to see a drop if nothing more than a pause as the tax credit was extended to April.  This was the ninth improvement in the last ten months, but again most looked past that as simply the tax credit stimulus and not an improvement in housing in general.  The Realtors report was enough to spike the market to the upside and those gains are holding at the time of this post.  We have a slate of potential trades as the market begins to show if this is just an oversold bounce or something more positive.  With all these cross-currents, patience is key right now.