Figures on U.S. Jobs, Housing Point to Strong Economy

U.S. home resales rebounded strongly in September and new applications for unemployment benefits hovered around 42-year lows last week. The data points at solid domestic fundamentals even as the global economy falters. Thursday's upbeat housing and labor market reports could keep the door open to an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve by the end of the year. Thomas Costerg is a U.S. economist at Standard Chartered Bank in New York. He told Reuters, "The market has been a little bit quick to price out a December Fed rate hike. What you are seeing in the data is that the domestic picture looks strong. I think that's what the Fed is going to be looking at closely." http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~3/RChGfJRLh9Y/story01.htm http://www.wochit.com This video was produced by Wochit using http://wochit.com