Bill Losey’s Weekly Economic Update for March 1, 2010Stocks log best month since November. The S&P 500 rose 2.85% last month even with worries over Greece, China and the U.S. housing and job markets. The S&P had its best February in 12 years. 4Q GDP revised to 5.9%. That tops the initial 5.7% estimate from the Commerce Department. It means 4Q 2009 was the strongest quarter since 3Q 2003. Home sales in deep freeze. The January numbers were very poor: -7.2% for residential resales, -11.2% for new homes. However, existing home sales were 11.5% above where they had been a year before. Case-Shiller index: home prices rising. The widely watched 20-city home price index posted its seventh straight monthly gain in December. Prices increased in 15 of the index’s 20 metro areas. Durable goods orders up 3.0%. The January figure from the Commerce Department was hugely positive. Yet with transportation orders factored out, durable goods orders were down 0.6%. Less confidence last month? The February Conference Board index of consumer confidence fell to 46.0 from 55.9 in January. The index’s assessment of current conditions was the lowest since 1983. Soft week but strong month. The major U.S. indexes lost from 0.25% (NASDAQ) to 0.74% (Dow) last week. Monthly gains were quite strong: DJIA, +2.56%; NASDAQ, +4.23%; S&P 500, +2.85%.
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My Attorney Made Me Include This:
Bill's blogs, articles, and economic reports are meant to provide you with general investment, financial and retirement information. They are not designed to be a definitive investment guide or to take the place of a qualified financial planner or other professional (because that would be just plain crazy). Given the risks involved in investing, there is absolutely no guarantee that the strategies or methods suggested on Bill's website will ever be profitable. If Bill could guarantee your results, he'd be passing the Grey Poupon to his wife aboard some pimped-out yacht in Tahiti by now. Here's the bottom-line: Bill does not assume liability of any kind for any losses that may be sustained as a result of applying the methods suggested and any such liability is hereby expressly disclaimed. Caveat emptor! Oh, one more thing...portions of the content on Bill's website were prepared by MarketingLibrary.net Inc.