Wall Street's economic jitters hit new levels on Wednesday as new data revealing anemic growth in durable goods orders and a record low for July new home sales combined to send the Dow below the psychologically-important 10000 threshold.
re:Housing at Marketwatch:
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Sales of new homes in the United States fell to all-time record low in July, as demand from consumers has dried up after tax breaks for homebuyers expired in April, the Commerce Department estimated Wednesday.
Sales dropped 12.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 276,000 in July, from a downwardly revised 315,000 in June. The report was weaker than expected, with economists surveyed by MarketWatch expecting a slight increase to 339,000 annualized.
"The report shows the housing industry is still nursing a bad hangover," said Mitchell Hochberg, principal at Madden Real Estate Ventures in New York, in an e-mail.
"With shadow inventory, rising foreclosures, little job growth and more stringent access to credit, weak sales will persist and the industry's headache will linger," he said.
U.S. stocks retained losses after the report was released, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/comstock/10w!i:dji/delayed (DJIA 10,006, -34.70, -0.35%) down 56 points in morning trade.
re: Durable Goods at Fox Business:
New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods rose far less than expected in July and, excluding transportation equipment, posted their largest decline in 1-1/2 years, according to a government report on Wednesday that pointed to a slowdown in manufacturing.
The Commerce Department said durable goods orders rose 0.3% after a revised 0.1% fall in June. Excluding transportation, orders dropped 3.8% -- the biggest fall since January 2009 -- after rising 0.2% in June.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast orders increasing 2.8% last month from June's previously reported 1.2% fall. Orders excluding transportation had been forecast to increase 0.5% from a previously reported 0.9% fall.
