Asian markets opened weak after last night's US data: new home sales fell by more than 14% and median prices jumped to $290. A statistic that lends itself to two readings: on the one hand, the real estate sector is experiencing a setback (even the 'stocks' of houses have increased – the indicator is constructed with the number of months necessary to dispose of the available houses for sale if sales continue at last month's pace); on the other hand, the increase in prices, also confirmed by other indicators, means that there are fewer and fewer houses whose value is lower than the residual mortgage, which should encourage household spending. In the face of these ambiguous American data, however, there is the announcement of the Chinese government that it is preparing to launch 80 infrastructure projects to support the economy.
The MSCI Asia Pacific index, however, limited the loss to 0,3% in the early Japanese afternoon. The p/e of the regional index is relatively low: 12,6 against 16 for the S&P500. And the futures of the American index are positive and cancel yesterday's modest regression.
In the currency field, the euro and the yen are stable against the dollar (1,382 and 102,32). Gold and WTI oil register still weak prices, at 1286 $/ounce and 101,7 $/b respectively.
