ITB, the iShares Dow Jones U.S. home construction ETF, has rallied strong the past couple of months. From the February 11th low through the intra-day high yesterday, it jumped north of 30 percent, rallying past its 50- and 200-day moving … Continued
Sales of existing homes collapsed 10.5 percent month-over-month in November, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.76 million units. This was the first time since February this year sales came in below five million. November sales were nearly 15 … Continued
Directionally, ITB, the iShares Dow Jones Home Construction ETF, and U.S. homebuilder sentiment tend to move together. The correlation coefficient is far from perfect, but at 0.68 between May 2006 and November 2015, it is decent (Chart 1). The National … Continued
Are U.S. homebuilders getting too aggressive? Makes you wonder. This month, the National Association of Home Builders housing market index rose three points to 64, to a 10-year high. There have been times in the past when builder sentiment ran … Continued
Relatively speaking, U.S. housing is going strong, with price being the major risk. Monthly data tend to be volatile. At a seasonally adjusted annual rate in August, sales of existing homes dropped 4.8 percent month-over-month to 5.31 million units, even … Continued
ITB, the iShares Home Construction ETF, has broken out. Support at $26 goes back to May 2013, and was defended several times during late April and early June. Since late April, ITB had also been trading within an ascending channel. … Continued
June’s housing starts will be published this Friday. Month-to-month, this is a volatile series. May was down 11 percent, while April was up 22 percent. Historically, starts remain low. As Chart 1 shows, it is not often the green line … Continued
The July 2nd ITB 27.50 naked calls hypothetically written on June 24 ended up in the money by six cents. The ETF closed at $27.56 last Thursday. Calls were sold for $0.38, so, after assignment, it is now an effective … Continued
Over the past couple of days, U.S. housing produced two good reports for the month of May. Monday, existing home sales were published, coming in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.35 million units – up 5.1 percent month-over-month … Continued
U.S. home builder sentiment in June jumps, to match post-bubble high of last September Recent spike in interest rates, if sticks, potentially shot across housing bow ITB acts tentative, but has not given up on crucial 26 support U.S. home … Continued