Jobles Claims up. Existing Home Sales and Median Price Down.

Initial Jobless Claims  (week ended 2/16/2013)

– New Claims (seasonally adjusted) 362,000.  Previous was 341,000

– 4-week Moving Average (seasonally adjusted) 360,750.  Previous was 352,500

– Unadjusted claims were 346,428 which is down 14,758 from the previous week.

This is not what recovery looks like.

CPI (January 2013)

– CPI overall –  Month/Month 0.0%

– CPI overall – Year/Year 1.6%

– CPI core (less food & energy) – Month/Month  +0.3%

– CPI core (less food & energy) – Year/Year +1.9%

Existing Home Sales (January 2013)

– Existing Home Sales – (seasonally adjusted, annualized) 4,920,000

– Existing Home Sales – Month/Month +0.4%

– Existing Home Sales – Year/Year +9.1%

The median price paid in January fell to $173,600 from the previous month’s $180,200 despite the fact that supply fell to 4.2 months. The NAR report blames the falling level of sales on lack of inventory but lower supply does not lead to lower prices.  Prices fluctuate as there is imbalance between demand and supply.  NAR tends to paint a less than objective picture.

Leading Economic Indicators (January 2013)

Leading Indicators Month/Month +0.2%

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Survey  (January 2013)

General Business Conditions Index -12.5.  Previous was -5.8.