Market Volatility - UP and Down Wall Street

Another week with the S&P 500 dropping 2.17% and the Dow 2.19%.  After just first two weeks of the year, S&P is down 8.00% and the Dow is down 8.25%.  Both are the worst starts ever to a new year. Concerns about slowing international economic growth, specifically in China is scaring investors out of stocks; lower oil prices is an issue for the energy sector; weak earnings reports shows weak growth here at home.  In the near future, prices may hit bottom so that stocks would be valued as a buy, but we’re not there yet.
 
To be honest, I have mixed emotions about starting off the year  with stock selloffs. Economists have been telling people to be 100%  cash since mid-December in order word put your money in safe investment.  When the market stabilizes, individuals or organizations may have a very good opportunity to buy more shares of DOW, S&P and International stocks to participate in the recovery that follows.
 
However, for folks who have not moved to cash.  They are still bouncing around with the market – and losing money as prices continue to fall.
 
Of course, the question is whether it is too late to move to cash.  Should they just stick it out from here?  
 

All Eye In Oil As The Market Takes A Dip amid Crude oil Inventory Increase

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 117 points as selling accelerated into the close. The S&P 500 closed more than half a percent lower, clinging to a year-to-date gain of about 0.2 percent.
Crude oil fallen prices is in everyone's mind as 3% was shade off the price therefore weighing on the market all day.  As mentioned yesterday the light volume of trade does not help as every movement positive or negative will move the market in either direction.

Oil decline lead the S&P 500 Sector to nearly 1.5%  decline most of the day. As there is nothing else to do or no news for the day,  we are now focused on oil for lack of better news for the Holiday.

Watching the U.S. crude oil futures today on todays news, it settled at $36.60 a barrel due to inventories building up to millions of barrels. this was an unexpected news that allow the market to tumble more that 117 points. The expectation was that inventories will decline, however, it turned out that instead of a decline, there was  an increase instead according to Petroleum Institute. The news of an increase affected the DOW Transport which declined with the news. Pending home sell falling to 0.9% did not help the light day trading section either according to National Association of Realtor

Gold futures for February delivery settled down $8.20 at $1,059.80 an ounce.


Happy New Year

UP Wall Street For The Week Ending December 24.

S&P and DOW went up 2.76 and 2.47 respectively. it was a good week for both S&P and Dow Jones Industrial Average as Christmas is near and stocks price rally strongly. Because this is Santa Clause week and the volume was low, the gain was insignificant.  As we all know, the market tends to rally and perform very well before Christmas.

Energy is the reason for the market down turn in recent weeks and months, it is will be easy to look at oil prices going up  as the reason for the stock market bounce. Because the volume is low, the impact on the market looked significantly higher than what it could have been if the volume is high. The impact is even more magnified as many investors took Christmas break

According to AAA, declining oil prices have saved Americans $115 Billion on gasoline year to date, a saving of $550 per driver, also in accordance to Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, bankruptcy filing by oil and gas companies is at its highest since the great recession of 2008.

Christmas sales is trickling down.  The mall parking lot is readily available for shoppers and lines in stores are very short making some nervous investors and it sound like retails sales will be disappointing.  some people will blame it to online shopping forgetting that online shopping only account to 10% - 20% of Christmas sales.  Analysts has lowered their sales expectations.

Be careful of the market ups and downs and back and forth.  when it comes to investing take the road less traveled.

Happy New Year.                     

Dow Scary Volatility - UPDATE for the week ended December 18, 2015.

For the first time since 2009 S&P 500 might be negative for the year. The S&P 500 lost 0.34% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.79% during the week ending in December 18.  That seems not very scary enough – right?  well, Not so quick.  These final numbers tell the story of the first interest rate hike seen in a while.  In fact, this type of volatile has not been seen in a while. 
 
The below are daily addition and subtraction  from Wall Street for the week:
 
Mon                      + 103 pts
Tue                       + 156 pts
Wed                      + 224 pts
Thu                       -  253 pts
Fri                         -  367 pts
 
Wall Street saw  UPs leading into the Federal Reserve announcement on the interest rate hike – and after the after the hike, things change for the worse. Investors bought the rumors and sold the news” – a pattern in which buyers bought stock in anticipation of an announcement, and then quickly sold stocks after the news released, pushing prices down.  We asked “what  do we do next” as investors were interested in stocks when the Fed’s hike interest rate, but turned  attention to other news – such as, energy and concerns about economic growth after the facts.
 
Oil prices have declined 17% this past few weeks.  America ended years ban on US oil exporting will this will surely increase supply even more.  Prices are now below $35 per barrel a level that small and marginal oil companies cannot make money on.  Interest rate hike only added to the  problems for these debt-laden oil producers.  As a result, high yield (junk) bond market – where many of these players obtained loan for projects had taken a beaten and this continues to weigh on the markets.

Zillow News: Market Trend

Tour of Detroit Housing: The Good, the Bad and the Hopeful

Amid blight and tear-downs, Detroiters pull together to rebuild their proud city.

Zillow: Drowning on Home Loan?

Carrying a mortgage is no small thing — it’s the largest debt many people will ever have — but it’s considerably harder when a home is valued below what’s left on the mortgage.

That situation is called “negative equity,” or being underwater, and many homeowners sank there in the wake of the recent housing crisis and recession. They are essentially stuck in their homes, unable in many cases to refinance or sell without taking a major financial hit.

At its most dire, 31.4 percent of U.S. mortgage holders were underwater. That was in the first quarter of 2012.

Three years later, the percentage is down by more than half, to 15.4 percent of U.S. mortgage holders, according to the first quarter Zillow Negative Equity Report.

That’s 7.9 million homeowners, of which 11.8 percent — more than 930,000 borrowers — owe more than twice the value of their homes.

“It’s great news that the level of negative equity is falling, but what really worries me is the depth of negative equity. Millions of Americans are so far underwater, it’s likely they may not regain equity for up to a decade or more at these rates,” said Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries.

To compound matters, many borrowers — underwater and not — are nearing retirement, and some are facing increased mortgage payments, said Gerri Detweiler, director of consumer education for Credit.com.

Larger payments are looming for many people who participated in federal mortgage relief programs and for many who took out home equity lines of credit before the housing crisis.

“It’s not over for a lot of people. They can still be in a precarious situation if anything goes wrong financially,” she said.

In general, Detweiler counsels underwater borrowers to explore all their options before a financial setback forces them to make a decision they haven’t thought through.

Some people will find it makes sense to stay put until home values rise enough to pull them out of the financial hole, Detweiler said. Others won’t.

Renting out the property also will make sense for some borrowers, but the possibility of tax changes and unexpected expenses will make it less attractive to others.

Detweiler strongly recommends not walking away from a mortgage without getting legal advice.

“I find a lot of consumers don’t understand the implications of just giving up on their mortgage,” she said. In some cases, that can lead to unexpected taxes, garnishment of wages and seizure of bank accounts.

She also suggests that people see a housing counselor or bankruptcy attorney before they tap retirement savings, which can be spared in some bankruptcy proceedings.

For more information about mortgages and home values, visit Zillow Research or follow and ask questions of Zillow Chief EconomistStan Humphries on Twitter.

Here’s a question he fielded recently: Why do underwater borrowers keep paying? “In America, mortgage contracts are imbued with a moral context,” Humphries said.

Melissa Allison

Realtor.com midyear report: the housing market is on track for its best year since 2006  

RealtyTrac spin on housing: the Goldilocks Home Price Analysis April 2015 , provide 3 interactive heat maps on

• Home Prices Too Hot (sizzling in SF, DC, Fargo, Winston-Salem)
• Home Prices Too Cold (frigid in St Louis, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Atlanta)
• Home Prices Just Right (Riverside, Chicago, Minneapolis, Albany, Cape Coral)

After the Bust: retired and still saddled with a mortgage.  30% of 65+ homeowners had a mortgage in 2013, up from 22% in 2001. Those 75+ jumped from 8% in 2001 to 21% in 2011.  

Distressed properties represent 10% of all sales. As a comparison, they were 15% in 2014. RealtyTrac research on strongest distressed market has identified Allentown and Bethlehem, PA at the top, followed by Toledo, Cleveland, and Detroit. Memphis, parts of Mississippi and Arkansas are up there, as well.

Zillow posts$200K homes with stunning curb appeal. take a look

Walk While Working. Zillow employees do 1-on-1 meetings in their "treadmill room!"

The latest Mortgage Rates: 30 Year fixed at 4.00% and 5/1 ARMS at 2.99%. Expect investor rates to run about ½ point higher on loans. (These are AOL/Zillow.com reported average rates as of Thursday)