today's data, 2011-01-20

Claims for initial unemployment benefits dropped by 37,000 to 404,000 last week, said the Labor Department. This drop beat economists' expectations by 12,000 and follows comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke stating he optimistic that the economy will improve this year. However, New York had the greatest increase in total claims, as a result of layoffs in the trade, service, and transportation industries.

Manufacturing activity in Philadelphia dipped 1.5 points to 19.3 in January, the city's Federal Reserve Bank reported. New orders, however, more than doubled to 23.6 in January from 10.6 in December.

Sales of existing homes in December increased 12.3% to a seasonally adjusted 5.28 million, capping off the worst year since 1997, according to the National Association of Realtors. The median home price decreased by 1% to $168,800, the lowest since February. NAR analysts hope this will bring on-the-fence buyers into the market.


(data is great, but the uptrend is changed. it will be flat, or up and down. it's not uptrend anyway. today is confirmed yesterday's drop. uptrend is broken. However the data today are really really good. maybe because of this, we can not go very deep this time. )