Thursday, February 25, 2010
Today, Fed Chairman Bernanke will continue his testimony before the House Financial Services Committee. Yesterday he said the U.S. economic recovery has been “nascent” and requires

low interest rates to help it sustain growth. He also said that low employment and subdued inflation allow the FOMC to keep downside pressure on interest rates.
Today’s January Durable Goods Report came out better than expected, but that wasn’t enough to help the equities. Stock indices are down on the news that initial claims rose by 22,000

to 496,000.

Weather will play havoc with market data over the next few weeks. Next month’s NFP report is expected to bring a few surprises after Feb.’s unexpected snow dump along the Easter sea board. This morning’s German Business confidence headline, itself, could not escape the ‘weather’. German confidence unexpectedly fell for the first time in 11-months in Jan., as the coldest winter in 14-years damped retail sales and construction (95.2 vs. 95.8). Despite its stronger underlying fundamentals, technically the German recovery is suspended until the winter is over.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010
U.S. investors are driving stock indices higher ahead of this morning’s housing starts and industrial production reports. Renewed confidence in higher risk assets is also contributing

to the strength. Trading could slow down after the morning session as investors flatten out ahead of this afternoon’s FOMC minutes.
The charts indicate that the main trend remains down in the three major indices and that this current rally is being driven by short-covering following the recent sharp sell-off.

This is a guest post by Tim Manni of HSH.com. Tim is the author of HSH’s daily blog, which concentrates on the latest developments in the mortgage and housing markets. If you like what you see here, please consider subscribing to his RSS feed.

Are you at all concerned about where mortgage rates are headed as we roll into 2010? If so, it’s understandable since many analysts have predicted rates to rise as the year goes on.

The correction didn’t end today, but buyers stepped up with volume behind them.  Stocks set a new low for the current correction after New Home sales unexpectedly slowed in December.  Selling pressure slowed as traders began positioning themselves for the FOMC rate decision.  The market appeared to have support at these levels NASDAQ 2200 and [...]
FOMC Rate Decisions Sparks Buyers as Volume Rises