Economics Update

While it's generally known that the Fed will cut rates, it is news when European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet says that it's likely that they will do the same, it is a bit of a surprise.

In terms of interest rate spreads, it's not looking good, with the spreads for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hitting the highest level since March.

In real estate we have Journalistic bullsh%$ good news, with reports that new home sales increased in September, but as Barry Ritholtz of the The Big Picture notes, these are bad numbers:

One other thing to note: Note the monthly 2.7% increase was based in part on last month's being revised downwards, making the differential look bigger (this month is also likely to be revised downwards). Annualized sales for the month was 464k; Actual unadjusted monthly new home sales are about 35-45k, down from 100-120k (before they get annualized).

Year over year, house sales fell by 33%, and prices fell by 9%.

Meanwhile, it looks like the tax payers have already sent a significant chunk of change to the banks $63 billion to 15 banks:

• PNC Financial Services ($7.7 billion)
• Capital One Financial ($3.55 billion)
  
• Regions Financial ($3.5 billion)
  
• SunTrust Banks ($3.5 billion)
  
• KeyCorp ($2.5 billion)
  
• Comerica ($2.25 billion)
  
• State Street ($2 billion)
  
• Northern Trust ($1.5 billion)
  
• Huntington Bancshares ($1.4 billion)
  
• First Horizon National ($866 million)
  
• City National ($395 million)
  
• Valley National Bancorp ($330 million)
• UCBH Holdings ($298 million)
  
• Washington Federal ($200 million)

Oh...me bad...I forgot that BB&T is in for $3.1 billion too.

Well, at least gas prices and oil prices are continuing to fall.

In currency, we have
the dollar and yen pounding the Euro and Pound to the degree that the bank of Japan is considering an intervention to keep the Yen form spiking too high.

It also looks like the Australian dollar is at serious risk of falling off a cliff, see here and here.