U.S. Economic News
October 22, 2019
U.S. Economic Indicators
Existing home sales fell 2.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.38 million in September but are up 3.9% compared to a year ago. NAR notes that the inventory shortage is driving up prices and preventing home sales growth. NAR Report
U.S. News
The Wall Street Journal reports that the New York Fed injected $99.9 billion in temporary liquidity and $7.5 billion in permanent reserves into financial markets as part of an ongoing effort to tame volatility in short-term rate markets. While banks didn’t take all the short-term liquidity offered by the Fed in its overnight repo operation, the Fed’s purchase of Treasury bills drew strong interest from banks. WSJ
Bloomberg reports that continued weakness in Japanese and South Korean export data reinforces the view that more needs to be done to bolster demand amid the lack of momentum in global trade. At last week’s annual IMF meeting in Washington, the Fund’s Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, called for fiscal policy to play a more active role in supporting growth in major economies. Bloomberg