All Things in Moderation

Vital Statistics:

Stocks are marginally higher this morning in thin holiday trading. Bonds and MBS are down.

Pending Home sales fell 2.2% in November, according to NAR. “There was less pending home sales action this time around, which I would ascribe to low housing supply, but also to buyers being hesitant about home prices,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “While I expect neither a price reduction, nor another year of record-pace price gains, the market will see more inventory in 2022 and that will help some consumers with affordability. Buyer competition alone is unrelenting, but home seekers have also had to contend with the negative impacts of supply chain disruptions and labor shortages this year,” he said. “These aspects, along with the exorbitant prices and a lack of available homes, have created a much tougher buying season.”

It looks like Biden will choose Sarah Raskin as the Federal Reserve head of banking regulation. After his disastrous experiment with Saule Omarova as head of the OCC, the worry was that he would nominate some other academic oddball to the Federal Reserve. Raskin has been a Fed governor in the past, so she at least has some relevant experience. She is also a sop to Biden’s progressive flank who didn’t want to see Jerome Powell get re-nominated.

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