With respect to the S&P futures this morning, optimism ahead of the likely dividend announcement by Apple is being offset by possibly the 1st down day in the DAX and CAC after 8 days in a row of gains. Greece will settle its CDS today and the first unofficial level would give creditors 21.75% of face value. In Asia, China announced that more cities in Feb reported home price declines and fewer cities saw price increases. While property stocks dragged down the Hang Seng index down by almost 1% in response, the Shanghai index eked out a small gain. In the US, the economic focus of the week will be the all important housing sector as home builder sentiment, starts, new and existing home sales will all be reported. While we should see continued signs of bottoming, there is little question the very mild winter had a positive impact on both construction and foot traffic.
