ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Housing Market Intro and Summary This edition of “What Happened in the Housing Market” is truncated again because the shutdown of the Federal government. Yet, the shutdown did not prevent the stocks of home builders from outperforming the rest of the stock market for the month. Optimism over lower interest rates, improved affordability metrics, and … Read more
Housing Market Intro and Summary This edition of “What Happened in the Housing Market” is truncated because the shutdown of the Federal government prevented the release of data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Census Bureau is responsible for reports on housing starts and new home sales. The remaining data in this month’s post depicts … Read more
The bearish to bullish reversal ended for home builder stocks with a return to bear market territory. Today, October 9, 2025, the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB) dropped under the threshold that defines a bear market: 20% below the all-time high (see chart below). The 2.6% slide on the day is part of a … Read more
Housing Market Intro and Summary What happened in the housing market for September, 2025? A rate cut fail unfolded as a resumption of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve failed to revive the stocks of homebuilders. This market reaction suggests that housing market data will remain soft for some time to come. Here is a … Read more
Housing Market Intro and Summary What happened in the housing market for August, 2025? The housing data remained stuck in slowdown territory, but the stock market followed through as expected on a bearish to bullish turn in the prices of the stocks of home builders. Financial markets are largely anticipating lower mortgage rates as a … Read more