Selling a house? Beware the costs...
"If you're thinking of selling your house to make a little money before rising interest rates squeeze the real estate market, there's good news and bad news."
* TSX -72.23 to 13,546.96 TSX opened with a shudder and closed lower at the end of a whipsaw session, initially shedding 400 points. Japan 's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average took the biggest hit in world markets, falling more than 1,000 points, or 11 per cent, after a six per cent decline Monday. “It’s very hard to quantify what’s transpIiring and very hard to quantify the risk in the system and there's a tremendous amount of misinformation circulating about,". Before cooler heads could prevail to cut the sell-off in half, more than US$1-trillion in equity value was wiped out across major indices around the world
* DOW -137.74 to 11,855.42 the DOW fell so quickly after the opening bell that the stock exchange invoked a special rule to reduce volatility.
* Dollar -1.19c to 101.63c USD The Canadian dollar went on a wild roller-coaster ride as the world's currencies reacted to investor fears over Japan 's unfolding nuclear disaster. The loonie plunged 2.25 cents to near parity, then in a matter of hours recovered more than half the loss. The volatility will continue and the uncertainty has flipped the fundamentals of currency trading on its head, said Dennis Gartman, a U.S. trader. “It’s just a flight to safety. When all else fails go to the U.S. dollar, or go to the Swiss franc,"
* Oil -$4.01 to $97.18USD per barrel
* Gold -$32.10 to $1392.80 per ounce Gartman said it is impossible to predict when the panic would end. "It will stop when it stops ... that's the best that can be said and that's 35 years of experience speaking,"
* Canadian 5 yr bond yields -.04bps to 2.54. The spread (based on the MERIX 5 yr rate published rate of 4.04%) is now high in the comfort zone at 1.50 due to the rate decrease.
(courtesy of Barb Morgan, DBD Ontario Southwest)
