Reuters - Jun 2, 2009
Pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes shot up by 6.7 percent in April, the biggest monthly gain in 7-1/2 years, according to a report on Tuesday that buttressed views the U.S. recession was easing.
And separate reports showing that U.S. auto sales fell by about 30 percent in May from last year provided another glimmer of optimism, with sales looking likely to beat analysts' modest expectations for the battered sector
The National Association of Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on new sales contracts, rose to 90.3 in April from 84.6 in March.
It was the third straight monthly increase and the largest jump since October 2001. The gain took the index 3.2 percent above its year-ago level, compared with economists' expectations for a rise of just 0.5 percent.
"It's a very positive and encouraging number. It plays into the 'green shoots,' economy stabilization story," said William Hornbarger, senior fixed income strategist at Wachovia Securities in St. Louis.
The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average rose for the fourth straight day on the housing news, with the Dow Jones home builder index gaining 2.7 percent.
The dollar, a safe-haven currency that tends to fall when investors move into riskier assets, slid against the euro to a fresh low for the year on confidence that the worst of the recession was over. Prices for U.S. government bonds edged higher on bargain hunting.
While sales of existing homes have increased in recent months, nearly half involve properties that have gone through foreclosure or which have been sold for a loss -- evidence of the sector's underlying weaknesses.
Tuesday's autos data showed that industry-wide sales for the month were on track to top 10 million units on the annualized basis tracked by analysts -- a better result than most economists had expected.
