National Association Of Home Builders' Index Slips A Point

Adding to the gloom provoked by Standard and Poor's changing their outlook on U.S. goverment debt to negative, the National Association of Home Builders reported their Index fell a point from 17 to 16. Expectations were for it to stay at 17.

"While builders in some areas are starting to see a pickup in traffic of prospective home buyers, many consumers remain skittish about the health of the housing market and overall economy, particularly in view of recent legislative and regulatory proposals that could make it much harder to get a mortgage," noted NAHB Chairman Bob Nielsen.

The index doesn't tip over into the good-times zone until it hits 50. It hasn't been that high in the last five years.


Gold drew some strength from the news, popping five dollars from $1,490 shortly after its release. It was pushed up hard by the S&P outlook news, though, and that pop was on the tail end of the much larger jump on the outlook news. The boost the metal got proved to be temporary; it shot down to $1,486 between 10:10 and 10:20 as the excitement over the outlook news was sold into. The greenback's recovery from the news added to the selling pressure put on the metal.