In better news today, existing home sales in September rose by 5.5%, the largest jump in more than five years. But even with the gain in prices, the median sales price fell to $191,600, a loss of 9% from a year ago, reports Martin Crutsinger for the Associated Press. Any hope that housing could be nearing a bottom, though, could be tempered by this morning’s news that indicates we’re close to a recession.
OPEC announced it was cutting production in an emergency meeting today, but prices still slipped below $63 a barrel. Production quotas will be slashed by 1.5 million barrels a day starting next month, reports Louise Watt for the Associated Press.
United States Oil (USO) is down 25.3% year-to-date.