First look, which tends to get revised substantially as more info is released.
Consumption looks discouraging, especially longer term, and it appears to be at ‘stall speed’:
You can see how after tax income keeps ratcheting down:
Wages used to go up faster with growth, but seems not this time:
Prices getting further from Fed’s 2% target, not closer: 
This continuing decline is particularly troubling as cash buyers are also on the decline, and home sales are already at severely depressed levels by any measure.
Furthermore, prices have also been falling month to month, and the year over year gains are heading towards negative territory as well.
This cycle may now be over.
With the federal deficit this low in the context of today’s credit conditions, income lost in one slow period is a drag on the next period, as credit expansion can’t keep up with unspent incomes and it all goes into reverse.
MBA Purchase Applications
Highlights
The big drop this month in mortgage rates has yet to raise demand for purchase applications which, in the October 24 week, fell a sharp 5.0 percent for the second straight week. And the trend for purchase applications is suddenly moving lower with the year-on-year rate, which had been in the low negative double-digits, now at minus 15 percent.
From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey
Mortgage applications decreased 6.6 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 24, 2014. …
The Refinance Index decreased 7 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 5 percent from one week earlier. … The seasonally adjusted purchase index and conventional purchase index were the lowest since February 2014, while the government purchase index was the lowest since August 2007.
Housing prices inching down month over month and industrial production showing weakness as well.
Reads like Renzi sold out to Brussels and the Italian exporters:
Italy Revises Budget to Avoid Clash With Brussels (WSJ) Italy backed away from a clash with the European Commission over its 2015 budget on Monday by agreeing to use a €3.3 billion ($4.18 billion) reserve it had initially earmarked for tax cuts to reduce its deficit instead. The government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said it would now use the €3.3 billion of funds in reserve to help meet the EU budget requests. A further €1.2 billion from minor budget adjustments will also be redirected to satisfy Brussels. The funds will allow Italy to reduce its structural deficit by more than it had initially planned in its budget. Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan had already indicated that Italy could use the funds in reserve to address possible requests from the commission.
The euro is up vs the $US today in spite of near universal positioning for it to fall,
Pending Home Sales Index
Whoops, last month’s ‘acceleration’ revised away.
Again, with purchase mtgs down and cash buyers down, hard to see total sales rising. And prices down as well, continuing that troubling tendency…
Highlights
New home sales, at a 467,000 annual rate, managed to top August’s great surge but only after August was revised sharply lower, from 504,000 to 466,000. Still, September’s 467,000 rate is the best of the recovery, going back to July 2008 with August’s 466,000 right behind in second place.
Price concession may be a key factor behind the September and August gains, gains that have lifted sales from this year’s earlier run in low 400,000s. The median price plunged a monthly 9.7 percent to $259,000. The year-on -year rate is in the minus column, at minus 4.0 percent, for only the second time in the last two years. Before this month, the year-on-year price was trending upward in the high single digits.
