U.S. Septenber New Home Sales, October Consumer Confidence - Surprising resilience, notably on labor signal
September new home sales, down a marginal 0.6% to 676k, have held up better than expected, while October consumer confidence with a bounce to 91.7 from 84.3 is even more surprising, reaching its highest level since June.
In the confidence data, both the present situation and expectations picked, up, the former a little more strongly.
The present situation was particularly supported by labor market perceptions, which reached their highest since April, more than fully erasing a deterioration on September, which hints at healthy labor market data.
The new home sales picture looks fairly stable, contrasting hints of weakening in other housing sector indicators. However weakness in the NAHB homebuilders’ index for October hits that the stability may not be sustained in Q4.
