Mortgage delinquencies for U.S. homes in the second
quarter of 2008 moved up six basis points from the previous quarter to
6.41% of all loans outstanding, marking a 29-year high, according to the
MBA's National Delinquency Survey released Friday.
A report on housing prices by Global Insight says that although prices
for single-family homes are still heading downwards across the country,
the rate of decline has gone down and "extreme overvaluation of
house prices is essentially non-existent."
The Canadian and U.S. employment reports for August followed by the
Canadian Ivey PMI will be today's main highlights for North America. In
the afternoon, markets will also hear from San Francisco Fed President
Janet Yellen (non-voter).
U.S. nonfarm payrolls declined for the eighth straight
month, falling more than expected by a total of 84k jobs in
August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. The
unemployment rate was pushed up four-tenths to 6.1% (6.055%), well above
expectations that it would remain at 5.7%.
The most hawkish voting member on the Federal Open Market Committee
said on Thursday that it's unclear whether slow growth will moderate
inflation into 2009, and said there are even odds that inflation
will accelerate from its current level.
