U.S. new home sales fall in August but trend still positive
New U.S. single-family home sales posted their biggest decline in nearly a year in August after soaring to nine-year highs the month before, with analysts saying the trend in sales remains positive.
The Commerce Department said on Monday new home sales fell 7.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 609,000 units last month. Sales were up 20.6 percent from a year ago.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast single-family home sales falling to an annualized rate of 600,000 units last month.
July's sales pace was revised up 5,000 units to 659,000 units. That level of annualized sales was the highest since October 2007, and even with the decline, the sales pace in August was the second highest since 2008.
Analysts said the level of sales generally supported their view of a strong underlying trend in new home sales and of a quickening pace of overall economic growth in the second half of the year.
Fed's Kaplan says he would have been OK with a September rate hike
Dallas Federal Reserve President Robert Kaplan said on Monday he would have been comfortable with an interest rate increase at the Fed's policy meeting last week when the central bank chose to keep rates steady.
Kaplan is not a voting member on the Fed's rate-setting committee this year but he participates in policy discussions and will have a vote at next year's meetings.
"I would like to see some removal of accommodation. I would have been comfortable seeing that accommodation removed in September," Kaplan told a banking conference in San Antonio.
Dallas Federal Reserve President Robert Kaplan said on Monday he was not concerned by the prospect that financial market assets do not adequately reflect the likelihood of interest rate increases.
Fed's Kashkari says no U.S. rate hike was right move
The Federal Reserve made the "right move" in deciding last week to leave interest rates unchanged, a top Fed official said on Monday, because inflation remains low and more workers are returning to the labor force.
"That to me suggests we have time before we need to adjust rates," Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari told reporters after a symposium on banking regulation at his bank's headquarters.
"I do think that was the right move. I supported the decision in the meeting," Kashkari said. "It seems to me that the risks of too low inflation are greater than the risks of too high inflation."
Oil ends up 3 percentt as OPEC meets; volatility hits post-Doha high
Oil settled up 3 percent on Monday as the world's largest producers gathered in Algeria to discuss ways to support prices, with nervous trade driving volatility to its highest since a similar meeting to freeze output in April in Doha which failed.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other oil producers led by Russia are meeting informally on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum in Algeria from Sept. 26-28 to tackle a crude glut that has battered prices for two years now.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 rose $1.45, or 3.3 percent, to settle at $45.93 after a session high of $46.20 and low of $44.43.
Reference: Reuters
Thai
Eng