Weak house sales hit Dow
US STOCKS fell back from earlier highs yesterday as weak housing figures and poor European and Chinese growth prospects dented market confidence.
The Dow Jones hit a post-financial crisis record of 13,000 on Tuesday, but fell 0.11 per cent yesterday to 12,951, while the Standard and Poor’s 500 slid 0.19 per cent over the day.
December’s housing sales figures were revised downwards, taking the shine off strong January figures.
Sales rose 4.3 per cent in January to an annualized rate of 4.57m units, the highest since May 2010 – but December’s sales fell 0.5 per cent to 4.38m, significantly down on the five per cent rise to 4.61m that was initially reported.
Price fell, too, with the median price down to $166,100 (£105,920), the lowest level since 2002, and the price of pre-owned homes down two per cent to $154,700.
However, the housing market is not all weak – the number of unsold homes fell to 2.31m last month, its lowest level since 2005.
European stocks were also down on poor purchasing managers’ indices suggesting the Eurozone may fall into an official recession, pushing the German DAX down 0.93 per cent and the French CAC 0.52 per cent.