Hello Everyone
It appears that as of Sunday June 14, Greek Debt talks have broken down (again), with Greece pushing-back on creditor requests that Greek pensions be cut. Another IMF payment is due on June 30, and many feel that Greece will not be able to pay it. SP 500 overnight futures are trading lower, reflecting the break-down in debt talks.
In other news, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will meet this week and upon finishing their meeting, will have a press conference at 2:30PM Eastern Time on Wednesday June 17. During this meeting, my opinion is that it is unlikely we see any acceleration of the pending interest rate hikes (my opinion is not until 2016). I feel this meeting will be a “non-event” and not much different from the last meeting.
Other news pending this week, on June 16, is the “Housing Starts Report”, this report includes building permits, housing starts and housing completions data. As we digest this report, which will likely be positive, and reflect an improvement over the last period, one must consider that home buyers who were “on the fence” between buying and renting, in light of potential interest rate hikes, are now in the “buyer” category. So recent positive Housing Starts reports, must be viewed thru this lens. In addition, May and June are typically the months of elevated real estate activity, as people get moved into position, and into a house, prior to the end of summer. For those who have PCS’ed, this is a multi-month process, packing out, selling your house, obtaining a new home, obtaining financing (“Quick close mortgage” is still approx 20 days), etc etc. So this does not happen overnight. As I am learning via my own PCS move, May and June are very active with large numbers of quick buyers waiting in the shadows to pounce on the nice homes with good schools. In light of the above events, we may have a turbulent market week, so keep those seat-belts fastened.
That is all I have for now….I remain 100% S-Fund, any changes I make to my TSP Allocation will be posted on this site.
Thank you for reading and everybody have a great week…
– Bill Pritchard
