@ The White House
In the morning, the President will participate in ?Putting America Back to Work: LinkedIn Presents a Town Hall with President Obama? in Mountain View, California. At the town hall, the President will answer questions about job creation and the economy from a live audience made up of LinkedIn members and employees, as well as questions that have been submitted from LinkedIn members across the country.
In the afternoon, the President will travel to San Diego, California. The departure from Mountain View, California and the arrival in San Diego, California are open press. While in San Diego, the President will deliver remarks at a campaign event at a private residence.
After, the President will travel to Los Angeles, California. The President will then deliver remarks at a campaign event at the House of Blues. Later in the evening, the President will deliver remarks at a campaign event at a private residence. The President will spend the night in Los Angeles.
@ Wall Street
Equity markets reacted unfavorably to the Fed?s policy statement on Wednesday, probably because it referred to "significant downside risks to the outlook."
The Dow was down 2.5% on Wednesday, and then another 3.5% on Thursday. Investors opted for the liquidity and security of U.S. securities as gold, oil, and other commodity prices were down sharply.
The 10-year Treasury yield dropped to almost 1.70%, which means that the federal government is now able to borrow at real interest rates that are probably negative?not the best way of eroding the federal debt. The economic reports for the week were mixed.
Builder sentiment and housing starts were down, but housing permits were up.
Existing home sales were up, although a clearing of the backlog and investors/speculators were behind the increase. Finally, initial claims decreased in the latest survey week, but the four-week moving average increased for the fifth straight week.
The stream of economic reports picks up in the upcoming week. The key release will be the personal income and spending report coming out on Friday, which will show that real consumer spending and real personal income were down in August. New home sales for August are expected to be up, but at depressed levels.
The Case-Shiller home price index will show home prices stabilizing, probably because of the recent drop in mortgage rates.
Durable goods orders for August are expected to be flat. Second-quarter GDP is expected to be revised up slightly. Finally, the Reuters/University of Michigan?s consumer sentiment and the Conference Board's consumer confidence Indices will indicate that confidence remains at recessionary levels.
Monday, September 26 ? New Home Sales (Aug.)
Implications: Single-family housing permits increased 2.5% in August. Based on this, we project that new home sales also grew by 2.5% in August, to a 305,000 annual rate. This market remains stuck at the bottom and the short-term outlook is for it to stay there.
