The PMC annual bike ride is this weekend, so much appreciate that those of you who haven’t yet done so
get your donations in, thanks, and if any of you will be there, let me know and I’ll be looking for you!

http://www2.pmc.org/profile/WM0015

Settling down a bit:

Better than expected:

Better than expected, lots of volatility, and anticipates existing home sales by a couple of months, which have flattened this year:

Highlights

After three straight declines, the pending home sales index posts a gain and a strong one, at 1.5 percent in June data that signal a long needed bounce for final sales of existing homes. Regional data show little variation with the West leading in June and the Midwest trailing. Pending sales take a month or two to close which points to strength for existing home sales in July and August. The housing sector struggled through the Spring season but, with second-half acceleration driven by low mortgage rates and high employment levels, can still post a solid year.

So the Swiss National Bank bought hundreds of billions of $ worth of foreign currencies, paying for them with ‘new’ swiss franc balances on their own books, which are subject to a negative interest rate. That means the SNB is gradually removing those funds it used to buy its fx reserves. Nice trade!!!
;)