HFE chief U.S. economist Jim..........>

US DATA REACT: HFE chief U.S. economist Jim O'Sullivan noted "the pending home

sales index, which tracks initial contracts for existing home sales, was +1.5%

m/m in Jun, above the +1.0% consensus; we had +0.8%." 

- He adds "the +1.5% reading following -0.7% in May (revised from -0.8%), -1.7%

in Apr, -0.9% in Mar and +5.5% m/m in Feb. The change from a year ago was +0.5%,

following -1.6% (based on seasonally adjusted data)."

- So he said "in short, a bit stronger than expected, although the trend has

still only been around flat recently. National Association of Realtors officials

continue to cite low inventories as a factor holding down existing home sales."

- HE adds that "new home sales have generally been showing more growth than

existing home sales recently; they were up 9.1% y/y in Jun. Also, existing home

sales, based on final contracts, have been stronger recently than implied by the

pending home sales index. Existing home sales are up 3.3% from a year earlier,

on average, over the last 12 months (through Jun), versus a 0.3% gain, on

average, in the pending home sales index during that period."