Greg Afarian’s Market Report for the week of 6/28 to 7/2. This has been a pretty negative week for stocks and the housing sector. The only bright side for housing was interest rates that saw the 30 year fixed rate hit a 50 year low.
30 Year Fixed Rate National average at 4.67% and 15 Year fixed Rate National Average at 4.06%. Todays employment report was better than expected with 125K non-farm payroll jobs added in the month of June. The private sector added 83K jobs and the unemployment report dipped to 9.5% which is the lowest since June 2009. It didn’t stop the market from selling off. The Dow lost 10% in the 2nd quarter as it loses another 450+ drop this week.

Apple was in the news again this week as it had the most successful product launch with its new iphone. It sold 1.7 Million Units in the 1st 3 days. Apple is 2nd to Exxon Mobil as the largest / most valuable company in US! Consumer Confidence falls in June to 52.9% which pushed the market lower. Gold was stable this week at $1,212 an OZ and Oil is at $72.41 a barrel.

Pending Home Sales fell off a cliff in May 30% and was down 16% year over year. It was down 32.6% in the Northeast, 32.1% in the MidWest, 33.3% in the South, and 20.9% in the West. 30 year fixed rates are at 50 year lows! 30 year average is at 4.67% and the 15 year fixed is at 4.06%.

The popular Home Buyer Tax Credit Program was extended for those people that were under contract to 9/30. Many people are questioning if the $800 Billion Stimulus worked? I would look at it as putting a band aid on a gushing wound. It may help at the beginning but won’t last long. I feel that we need to be helping all the other people that pay taxes. We need to cut taxes across the board to stimulate business growth. It’s when business owners feel confident is when the rest of the economy will follow.