Economics Update

As today is a holiday in the United States, it was a fairly slow news day, but over the weekend, we got a report on house prices in the UK, and the asking price rose at the fastest rate in 3 years, of course, the whole problem with the real-estate crisis was the disconnect between ask and offer, so I'd wait for sale prices to rejoice.

In real estate in the US, delinquencies on commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) jumped in January.

On the brighter side, Japanese GDP grew strongly, largely on capital spending driven by exports.

In currency and energy, the Euro hit a 9 month low on the mess that is Greece, while crude oil was basically flat, up 6¢/bbl.