Daily Market Commentary for January 31, 2012

Insider Trading is illegal in the United States but, of late, it has more publically been brought out that, the action is not so much illegal, for certain members of our government. (read more at Millennium-Traders.Com)
http://www.millennium-traders.com/news/newscommentary.aspx

In November, U.S. house prices dropped sharply, to mark the third straight drop. The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city composite home price index dropped 1.3% to take the year-on-year drop to 3.7%. Phoenix, is the only city which managed a monthly gain. Detroit and Washington D.C. were only two cities to manage a gain, on a year-on-year basis. In Atlanta house prices fell 2.5% on the month to bring the annual drop to 11.8% to strike the worst of the 20 cities measured. New housing price lows were reached by Atlanta, Las Vegas, Seattle and Tampa reached new lows. On a seasonally adjusted basis the housing price index fell 0.7% November. The Case-Shiller data includes transactions from September and October, broadly tracking what other home-price gauges say. On a year-on-year basis, the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s index was down 1.8%, while CoreLogic reported a 4.3% drop.

The Conference Board reported consumer confidence fell to 61.1 in January, partly reversing substantial gains in the previous two months, as views on current business conditions and employment declined. "Recent increases in gasoline prices may have consumers feeling a little less confident this month," said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's consumer research center, in a statement. Consumer expectations ticked lower in January on a lower outlook for income and business conditions. The December reading for confidence was revised to 64.8 from a prior estimate of 64.5. Confidence readings of at least 90 generally indicate the economy is growing at a good clip.

The Institute for Supply Management reported Chicago PMI for January fell 2 percentage points to 60.2, striking the second straight decline even though readings above 50 indicate expansion.


Sign up today for a one week trial to our Day Trading Rooms for stocks, futures or forex plus, Weekly Swing Trades for stocks.

Detailed historic performance available on our Market Commentary section.

Monthly Trading Lesson provides new trading subject every month.

Opt-in to our free Weekly Market News sent via email, the first trading day of the week. Includes recap of markets from previous week as well as active stocks plus, see what is ahead for the upcoming trading week.

Register now for our Free Chat Rooms - penny stocks, options, stocks, futures and forex! Chat with other traders during off-peak market hours.

Follow us now on Twitter and join us on Facebook.

Thanks for reading
Millennium-Traders.Com
http://www.millennium-traders.com