• Home-price gains in 20 U.S. cities decelerated in July for a 16th straight month, as values proved still too elevated for buyers despite low mortgage rates.
• The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index of property values increased 2% from a year earlier, the slowest since August 2012, according to data released Tuesday. Nationally, home-price gains remained steady, rising at a 3.2% pace.

• The latest data highlight how the market continues to struggle despite solid wage gains for Americans and cheaper borrowing costs. A shortage of affordable inventory and construction constraints have helped lift home prices despite demand that has been somewhat tepid as elevated prices deter some potential buyers.
• Price gains may accelerate in coming months amid signs that lower rates may be luring more buyers into the market. Existing home sales rose in August to the best pace in more than a year, while the median sales price saw the second-fastest gain in the past year.

 (Source: Bloomberg)

• Home-price gains in 20 U.S. cities decelerated in July for a 16th straight month, as values proved still too elevated for buyers despite low mortgage rates.
• The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index of property values increased 2% from a year earlier, the slowest since August 2012, according to data released Tuesday. Nationally, home-price gains remained steady, rising at a 3.2% pace.

• The latest data highlight how the market continues to struggle despite solid wage gains for Americans and cheaper borrowing costs. A shortage of affordable inventory and construction constraints have helped lift home prices despite demand that has been somewhat tepid as elevated prices deter some potential buyers.
• Price gains may accelerate in coming months amid signs that lower rates may be luring more buyers into the market. Existing home sales rose in August to the best pace in more than a year, while the median sales price saw the second-fastest gain in the past year.

 (Source: Bloomberg)

• The pressure is mounting on the Federal Reserve to take more aggressive steps to address stress in U.S. funding markets as swap spreads tumbled to record lows Thursday. 
• The New York Fed is planning a fourth temporary liquidity injection Friday, and the moves have helped to allay concern after repo rates soared to 10% Tuesday.
• Still, the dollar-funding squeeze could get worse with the end of the quarter approaching, raising the possibility that liquidity-providing banks will retreat to close their books and meet capital needs.
• Meanwhile, another round of Treasury auctions next week could leave markets short an additional $45Bn in cash.
• Over in China, analysts called for stronger easing signals after the People’s Bank of China only slightly lowered the one-year reference rate for bank loans, a new gauge of borrowing costs

(Source: Bloomberg)

• The tourism industry continues to record unprecedented growth, with a 9.1% increase in stopover arrivals for the first eight months of 2019.
• Director of Tourism, Donovan White, points out that up to August 31, 2019, Jamaica recorded 1.8Mn in stopover arrivals, achieving a revenue inflow of US$2.39Bn, which is a 12.0% growth in earnings over the same period last year.
• White was speaking at the 2019 Jamaica Product Exchange (JAPEX) Media Breakfast at the Half Moon Hotel, Rose Hall, Montego Bay, St. James, on Tuesday, September 10.
• According to the Director, Jamaica is poised to generate approximately US$3.5Bn in tourism earnings from stopover arrivals for 2019, a 12.0% increase in revenue inflow over 2018.
• He added that just under 2.7Mn stopover tourists are expected to visit the island by the end of 2019, an increase of 8.5%.

(Source: JIS)

• Net profit at Indies Pharma increased 41.2% for the nine-month period ended July 31, 2019, moving from $80.11Mn (EPS: $0.06) to $113.09Mn (EPS: $0.09).
• Revenues at the company increased by 28.2% (or $126.51Mn) and were the major contributor to the improved bottom line. In addition, Indies has decreased their liabilities and is now debt-free relative to the corresponding period of 2018 thereby resulting in a decline of 93.3% (or 3.92Mn) in finance costs. The company has also benefitted from exchange gains which increased by $932K.
• The stock has risen 7.86% since the start of the calendar year and closed yesterday’s trading session at $3.43. The stock currently trades at a P/E of 28.58x which is above the Junior Market Distribution sector average of 25.01x.

(Source: Indies Pharma Financials)

• Record-low unemployment, stable inflation, and credit expansion will drive economic activity in Jamaica over the coming quarters.
• Fitch Solutions has forecasted real GDP growth of 2.1% y-o-y in 2019 and 1.8% in 2020.
• Risks to the forecast are weighted to the downside given Jamaica’s dependence on the United States for remittances, tourism, and exports.

(Source: Fitch Solutions)

• Fitch has become more downbeat on the near-term outlook for Latin America’s major currencies. Amid a deteriorating global economic outlook and US-China trade tensions, commodity prices have declined, causing most regional currencies to underperform expectations in recent months.
• Moreover, downside risks to the forecasts are also rising given vulnerabilities in the external environment that would put selling pressure on risk assets.
• Moreover, Fitch has become bullish on the US dollar, with the unit being supported by growing risk aversion in global markets, dovish central banks globally and technical dynamics. Idiosyncratic political factors also remain significant drivers of price movement in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, with risks largely slanted to the downside in these markets.

(Source: Fitch)

• The government of Trinidad and Tobago could be forced to make a termination payment of up to an estimated US$43Mn to the China Gezhouba Group International Engineering Co Ltd (CGGC) for the cancellation of its contract with the Housing Development Corporation (HDC), according to Express Business calculations based on local high-rise apartment construction costs and profit projections.
• That is if an investigation of the award of the controversial contract determines that no bribes, inducement or commissions were paid by the Chinese contractor to any local official.

(Source: Trinidad Express)

• The European Central Bank looks set to announce a range of stimulus measures Thursday, with markets waiting anxiously for details of a plan that could include both lower interest rates and fresh bond purchases.
• Unfortunately, the strategy of lowering borrowing costs for companies and households with increasingly negative interest rates is putting a serious dent in the banking industry’s profitability.
• The ECB’s current deposit rate is minus 0.4%, and that has become a charge, according to Deutsche Bank, which tallies the cost at hundreds of millions of euros this year.

(Source: Bloomberg)

• President Donald Trump urged the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates to a level typically reserved for recessions or periods of persistently weak growth, suggesting that such a setting could allow the government to refinance Treasury debt at a lower cost.
• The Fed should “get our interest rates down to ZERO, or less,” Trump said in an early Wednesday tweet that went beyond his previous attacks and demand for a cut of one percentage point.
• “We should then start to refinance our debt. INTEREST COST COULD BE BROUGHT WAY DOWN, while at the same time substantially lengthening the term.”
• With Trump polling behind several Democratic candidates in his 2020 re-election campaign and Americans fearing a recession within the next year, the president is seeking to deflect blame for any economic ills.
• He has repeatedly blamed the Fed and Chairman Jerome Powell, who goes by Jay, for raising interest rates too steeply in 2018 and constraining the economy as the president pursues a trade war with China.

(Source: Bloomberg)