November New Home Sales

By all media accounts today's data on New Home Sales portrays a better than expected performance during the month of November. My realtor wife was quick to chide and remind that the government's figures do not take into account cancellations, but count signed contracts as sales. Oy. She's right. And you'll recall that Ara Hovnanian and Robert Toll both noted a heavy rate of cancellations during their recent earnings conference calls. So these November numbers are muddy, but the markets will take what they can get; stocks are getting a lift, bonds pulling back off this data.