Thursday March 2 2017 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:            

When selling starts in markets, it'll trigger an 'avalanche', Marc Faber says -  (www.cnbc.com) The man often hailed as the original 'Dr. Doom' is warning investors that the U.S. stock market is vulnerable to a seismic sell-off—one that could start any time in a very unassuming way. Marc Faber, the editor of "The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report," predicted the rally's disruption won't be caused by any single catalyst. His argument: Stocks are very overbought and sentiment is way too bullish for the so-called Trump rally to continue. "Very simply, the market starts to go down. As it goes down, it will start triggering selling, and then it will be like an avalanche," said Faber recently on "Futures Now." "I would underweight U.S. stocks."

Does Uber Know it Can’t Make Money Unless it Uses Self-Driving Cars and Gets Rid of Human Drivers? - (www.wolfstreet.com) Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Google’s parent company, filed a lawsuit on Thursday in federal court against Uber and its recently acquired startup Otto, accusing Uber and Otto’s founder Anthony Levandowski, who’d been a project leader at Google’s self-driving-cars project since 2009, of stealing a huge pile of trade secrets. The New York Times: In a federal court filing in San Francisco, Waymo said Anthony Levandowski, who runs Uber’s autonomous car division, downloaded 14,000 files from Google a month before leaving to start his own self-driving car company, Otto. Uber acquired Otto in August for $680 million, about seven months after Mr. Levandowski left Google.

Pending Home Sales Tumble To Lowest In A Year (And It's About To Get Worse) - (www.zerohedge.com) Against expectations of a 0.6% rise, pending home sales in January plunged 2.8% MoM - the biggest drop since May. As mortgage rates have soared since the election, affordability has become a major issue according to NAR with pending home sales at the lowest in a year. The West - the most expensive region - saw the biggest decline, down 10.3% MoM with The Midwest also tumbling 5.2% MoM.

Bond Market Is Flashing Warning Signal on Trump Reflation Trade - (www.wsj.com) Stocks and bonds are again moving in tandem after diverging in recent months—a sign some investors may be losing faith in the so-called reflation trade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has soared more than 1,000 points so far this year and closed at a record of 20821.76 Friday. Bond prices, too, are rising, driving down the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to 2.317% Friday, the lowest since late November, from 2.446% at the end of 2016. Yields fall as bond prices rise. It is a shift from late last year when investors were selling bonds and buying stocks, anticipating that large fiscal stimulus from President Donald Trump would lead to accelerated growth and higher inflation, a bet known as the reflation trade. The new pattern is generating debate among investors.

Greece must not be granted a "bail in" that would involve creditors taking a loss on their loans - (www.bloomberg.com) Greece must not be granted a "bail in" that would involve creditors taking a loss on their loans, Germany's deputy finance minister said in an interview broadcast on Sunday, reiterating the German government's opposition to debt relief for Athens. "There must not be a bail-in," Jens Spahn told German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, according to a written transcript of the interview. "We think it is very, very likely that we will come to an agreement with the International Monetary Fund that does not require a haircut," he said, referring to losses that Greece's creditors would have to take if debt was written off. The IMF has called for Greece to be granted substantial debt relief, but this is opposed by Germany, which makes the largest contribution to the budget of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the euro zone's bailout fund.

OTHER STORIES:

Bank Lending Signals Caution - (www.wsj.com)

China securities regulator to focus on stability, reform - (www.reuters.com)
Iran holds naval war games amid rising tensions with U.S. - (www.reuters.com)

Asian Stocks Drop, Yen Advances Before Trump Speech: Market Wrap - (www.bloomberg.com)
No cuts to U.S. entitlement programs in Trump budget: Mnuchin - (www.reuters.com)

What Does the French Election Mean for the Euro? - (www.wsj.com)