Home Prices, Gas Prices and McDonald’s
January 25, 2016
Monday – January 25
Black Knight Financial Services reported on Monday that home prices rose 0.1% in November from October and are up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. Steady employment gains coupled with low mortgage rates continue to be the catalysts behind home price appreciation. Black Knight went on to say that at $253K, the national level Home Price Index is now just 5.3% off its June 2006 peak of $268K, and up 27% from the market’s bottom in January 2012. For the fifth month in a row, New York led the gains among states, registering a 1.2% increase from October to November.
Gas prices at the nations pumps continue to decline as oil prices hit 13-year lows. A big oversupply in oil reserves is the key mover in lower oil prices. Just recently, Iran announced record high oil production, which is weighing on an already saturated market. The national average price for a regular gallon of gasoline is at $1.82, down from $2 a month ago. The all-time high price for a regular gallon of gas was back in July of 2008 when the price hit $4.11.
McDonald’s, the world’s largest hamburger chain, reported better-than-expected earnings in its latest quarterly report driven in part by its recent addition of breakfast around-the-clock. The company reported that unseasonably warm weather along with the launch of all-day breakfast helped to boost sales by 5.7% in the last three months of 2015. For the last quarter of 2015, McDonald’s had earnings per share or $1.31 per share, which beat Wall Street expectations for $1.23 per share. Total revenue was $6.34 billion, also topping the $6.24 billion analysts were expecting.
