Refi Loans Up, Purchases Down.

Mortgage Applications (week ended 12/9)
-Purchase Index, Week/Week -8.2%
-Refinance Index, Week/Week 9.3%
-Composite Index – Week/Week 4.1%
-Increased refinancing was driven by lower rates. The purchase index indicates the softness of the overall real estate market even at these low rates.

Import/Export Prices
-Export Prices, Month/Month +0.1%
-Export Prices, Year/Year +4.7%
-Import Prices, Month/Month +0.7%
-Import Prices, Year/Year +9.9%
-This data says more about the fact that the US dollar is still the world’s reserve currency. A lot of exports are agricultural and a lot of imports are oil making Import/Export prices volatile.