Daily Commentary by Larry Baer: The political maneuvering and finger-pointing
grew more heated yesterday as Republican leadership in the House made plans to
move a bill of its own to the floor today in an effort to avert steep hikes and
budget cuts set to automatically trigger at midnight on December 31st.
The planned action
by Republicans angered President Obama who publically stated he believed the
move to be driven by those holding a personal grudge against him. Senior
administration officials described negotiations at a standstill -- while the
top Republican in the Senate said a resolution to the stalemate could come by
the end of the week.
Investors continue
to move capital to the sidelines as the curtain opens on another act of ongoing
political theater. Let us all hope reason will prevail and a deal will be
struck without blowing up at the last second as a result of emotionally or
politically manufactured reasons.
Today's battery of
economic data was completely overshadowed by the whine and grind of the
political engines in Washington.
The Commerce Department made their final revisions to third-quarter Gross
Domestic Product to up 3.1% from the initially reported gain of 2.7%. The
Labor Department chipped in to say the number of Americans filing first-time
claims for government unemployment benefits rose for the first time in five weeks
- gaining 17,000 for period ended December 15th.
The National Association of Realtors finished off this morning's flow of
macro-economic data by announcing a very solid 5.9% improvement in the pace of
Existing Home Sales during the month of November.
Today's
stronger-than-expected GDP data and the sharp improvement in November Existing
Homes did cause a temporary little flutter in the mortgage market - but the
fact remains any substantial shift in the current trend trajectory of mortgage
interest rates will almost certainly be tied to events surrounding political
action - or lack thereof - surrounding the looming "fiscal
cliff".
THE
MARKET IS ALWAYS RIGHT! . YOU AND I ARE SOME OF THE TIME
