| Published: January 6, 2009 5:05 PM | | | The buck gave up overnight gains in NY trading as a poor batch of US economic data and the FOMC meeting minutes dealt the market a fresh dose of reality. The ISM services index was the lone positive surprise, coming at a still dismal 40.6 in December after a paltry 37.3 print the prior month. Factory orders for November, however, were worse at -4.6% and the key capital expenditure measure that feeds into GDP was revised lower, to a horrendous three-month annual run-rate of -28.0%. Pending home sales also disappointed by registering a sharp -4.0% decline in November, in an ominous sign for home sales in 1Q 2009. » Read More | |
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