Pending home sales improved for the fourth consecutive month in November, reaching the highest level since February 2023, according to this morning\u2019s National Association of Realtors\u2019 (NAR) release. Pending sales, furthermore, strengthened in all four of the country\u2019s regions. The NAR attributes the strong results to lighter borrowing costs improving affordability, wages increasing at a faster pace than house stickers and more inventory. The results are additional evidence that the residential real estate market had bottomed in recent months. Contract signings climbed 3.3% month over month (m\/m) and 2.6% year over year (y\/y), compared to the 2.4% m\/m gain and 0.4% y\/y decline results in the preceding month. Economists anticipated a 1% m\/m print. Transactions grew 9.2%, 2.4%, 1.8% and 1.3% across the West, South, Northeast and Midwest regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Past performance is not indicative of future results<\/p>\n\n\n\n Terrific Three-Year Run for Stocks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Market bulls appear like they needed a break today as Friday\u2019s record brought the S&P 500 to an approximate year-to-date gain of 18% as of Monday, Dec. 29. The three-year run in stocks has been terrific and annual appreciation rates near 20% would certainly be something that the investing community could get used to. Indeed, 2023 and 2024 both delivered returns north of 23%, and after a stellar 2025, participants are geared up for another sprint in 2026. But there\u2019s good reason to believe that performance could be more tempered going forward, as valuation expansion has its limits and the setup is conducive to a period of muted gains or a so-called flat year, in order for Wall Street to digest the advances of preceding periods. The economy is healthy overall and there is fuel in the tank for further upside, however, the longer we extend earnings multiples, the higher the bar is for corporates to meet expectations, the slimmer the margin for error gets and the incrementally riskier it is to remain long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n International Roundup<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hong Kong Exports Grow at Fastest Rate Since Early 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Strong demand for electrical equipment, machinery and appliances helped push Hong Kong\u2019s November exports up 18.8% year over year (y\/y), the strongest gain since January 2024\u2019s 33.6% ascent. In October, the special administrative district\u2019s exports grew 17.5%. November purchases from foreign markets also climbed but the 18.1% rate eased slightly from 18.3% in the preceding print. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" US stocks on Monday failed to sustain the enthusiasm from last week, with investors reducing their risk exposures following two consecutive trading days of fresh records on the S&P 500 amidst fragile geopolitical situations in Caracas and Kyiv. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":210377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,146,147,148,7],"tags":[362,291,314],"contributors-categories":[370],"class_list":{"0":"post-210374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ibkr-economic-landscape","8":"category-macro","9":"category-north-america","10":"category-text-articles","11":"category-traders-insight","12":"tag-economic-outlook","13":"tag-macro","14":"tag-market-outlook","15":"contributors-categories-ibkr-macroeconomics"},"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Contract](\"https:\/\/www.interactivebrokers.eu\/campus\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/12\/image-80-1100x801.png\")
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