270 Quotes by Ian Shepherdson

The revisions are not as big as we feared, ... The new April number shows sales at their lowest level since November, but the previous four months were exceptionally strong, in part due to favorable weather. Given the strong trend in mortgage applications, these data likely do not signal real housing weakness.

The Fed can and will be much more of an active player in the stock market until it turns the corner,

On the face of it these are very Fed-friendly numbers.

There should be no doubt that Mr. Greenspan's view has changed; he now believes the economy is turning rather than just approaching the turn,

In any event, a single durable good report will have little effect on the Fed.

If we had any faith in the reliability of these numbers, we'd have to call them disappointing, ... But we don't, so we won't.

The trend in sales is probably not as weak as this seems to suggest, but there is no question that the condo/co-op market is slowing much more dramatically than the market for single-family homes. Even in the latter case, however, sales have fallen more than 10% from their summer peak.

If sharply higher interest rates, and a plunging Nasdaq make people more optimistic, we are at a loss to know what it will take to depress confidence,

The trend in claims has risen this year, in tandem with the clear drop in business confidence in the period before the war with Iraq. If claims are sustained at this level they will signal an acceleration in the rate of net job losses recorded in the payroll numbers.