U.S. existing home sales likely to have risen in July

U.S. existing home sales are expected to have risen in July. In the prior month, home sales had decelerated to an annualized rate of just 5.38 million. Low inventories are still the main problem holding back sales. Nevertheless, there appears to be some rebound on this front. Total inventories rose to 1.95 million in June, a large enough gain to make the year-over-year growth rate in inventories positive for the first time in three years. Nevertheless, shortages continue to be an obstacle to sales, particularly in the South and West.

The median price of an existing home had risen to USD 276,900 in June, a fresh all-time high. On a nominal basis, median home prices are 20 percent above their pre-recession peak. The debt service ratio for mortgage debt remains historically low, as result of household deleveraging and low interest rates since the financial crisis. However, higher home prices and increasing mortgage rates risk putting homeownership out of reach for more households. According to a Wells Fargo research report, existing home sales are expected to have risen to 5.42 million in July.

At 15:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was highly bearish at -111.404. For more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex