Economic Reports 10/24/07

Summary: The housing debacle continues with no end in site. Existing Home Sales, Merrill Lynch writedowns, Centex losses all disasterous.

Existing Home Sales Sep -8% at 5.04M Full Report

Inside the number: YOY -19.1%; YTD -28.9%. Inventory 0.4%; YOY +16.3%. Sales Price -4.2%; West -8.8%.

SFR: -28.9%; YOY -22.7%; YTD -22.9%;YOY Price -4.9%; Inventory +9.7%; YOY +43.7%

Merrill Lynch, the nation's largest broker, reported its 1st loss since 2001 and said the its write downs for bad mortgage loans and CDO's was almost $8.4 billion vs the $4.5 Billion announced two weeks ago.

Amazon beat by a penny on shrinking profit margins. Conoco Phillips reported a decline in Q3 earnings, Boeing beat the number.

#4 homebuilder Centex posted a $644 Million loss on a 21% revenue, 38% backlog decline, and 35% cancellation rate. #3 Pulte and Ryland report later today.

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