COMMODITIES MARKETS

Crops set the pace in March. Aside from coffee losing 1.03%, there were numerous gains – wheat, 16.53%; sugar, 12.26%; corn, 6.99%; cotton, 8.25%; soybeans, 1.56%; cocoa, 0.20%. Among energy futures, oil dipped 1.31%, heating oil 4.87% and natural gas 4.85%. March did see a 4.18% ascent for unleaded gasoline.17 As the trading day wrapped up on the COMEX on March 31, an ounce of gold was valued at $1,283.40, an ounce of silver at $19.75. Those prices reflected a 3.12%

March retreat for gold and a 6.98% March drop for silver. Copper slipped 5.80% for the month, platinum 1.92%. The U.S. Dollar Index ended March at 80.11, rising 0.53% for the month.17,18

REAL ESTATE

Residential resales had declined again. Sales of existing homes, the National Association of Realtors reported, dipped 0.4% in February. Pending home sales were down 0.8% on the month as well. Analysts hoped that short-term issues (pinched inventory and rough weather) were the barriers preventing improvement.11,19

New home sales retreated 3.3% in February (with new homes moving at the slowest pace since September). Sales were down 1.1% annually according to Commerce Department calculations. Housing starts did rise 0.3% in February, complemented by a 7.7% monthly increase in building permits.7,20

Slimmer inventory was a factor in rising house prices. In February, NAR noted, the median sale price of an existing home was $189,000, up 9.1% in 12 months. January’s S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index showed an overall annual gain of 13.2% in addition to a monthly increase of 0.8%.7,19

Most mortgage types grew slightly more expensive last month. Tracking Freddie Mac’s March 27 and February 27 Primary Mortgage Market Surveys, we see the following increases in average interest rates for varieties of home loans: 30-year FRMs, 4.37% to 4.40%; 15-year FRMs, 3.39% to 3.42%; 5/1-year ARMs, 3.05% to 3.10%. On the other hand, the average interest rate on the 1-year ARM descended 0.08% to 2.44%.21