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But something is sticking in my craw.

There is a disconnect between Toll's Q report and lumber prices???

Despite the incessant belief that this must be too-much-new-supply-driven (as opposed to a lack of demand for new home construction), Lumber futures (after hitting limit down once again today) have now officially entered bear-market territory. Front-month lumber prices are down 23% from their highs in mid-March and given the 2-month lead that correlates so well to the market, it seems things are a little ahead of themselves in 'housing recovery' land.

Sentiment: Sell

No real recovery in new home sales volume in five years despite much speculation.

Smart money taking their chips off the table.

Sentiment: Sell

Especially if you are stuck in one of those $600K homes and your income becomes jeopardized.

Poverty is growing faster in the suburbs than anywhere else in the United States, soaring 64% over the past decade.

That was more than twice the growth rate of the urban poor population, according to the Brookings Institution, which released a book Monday titled Confronting Suburban Poverty in America. There are now almost 16.4 million suburban residents living below the poverty line, nearly 3 million more than in the cities.

The poverty line for a family of four was $23,021 in 2011, the latest Census figures available.

Low-income Americans have been moving to suburbs for many years, as wealthier Americans and companies relocated there. The poor were chasing the unskilled job opportunities that cropped up to cater to these people and businesses, said Elizabeth Kneebone, who co-authored the book.

"When people think of poverty in America, they tend to think of inner city neighborhoods or isolated rural communities," Kneebone said. "But today, suburbs are home to the largest and fastest growing poor population in the country."

During the 2000s, many poor people found work in the suburbs in construction, fueled by the housing boom in the first part of the decade, and in the services sector, working in restaurants and retail shops. Also, more impoverished immigrants increasingly moved directly to the suburbs over the past decade, joining predecessors who established communities outside of cities.

The Great Recession exacerbated the suburban poverty problem, as the construction industry cratered and many businesses closed, leaving low-wage workers without jobs. Also, the downturn forced formerly middle class families down the economic ladder into poverty.

The suburbs, however, are ill-equipped to deal with this burgeoning poor population, Kneebone said. There aren't as many social services agencies and they are often spread far and wide, making it difficult for those without cars to access. Most of the $82 billion spent by the federal government to combat poverty is directed to cities.

In the book, Kneebone and her co-author, Alan Berube, argue that the federal government needs to come up with new ways to tackle the problem of poverty in suburbia, which requires different tactics than its urban counterpart. In particular, assistance must address the fragmented nature of suburban populations and assistance organizations.

Sentiment: Sell

...eom...

Sentiment: Sell

FTR daily trading volume went up to 10 million shares daily after the VZ merger.

It has remained there for almost three years.

That is until now.

Just an observation.

Sentiment: Buy

Here come the downgrades....

The homebuilders are most concerned about single family starts, which fell by 2.1% to an annual rate of 610,000, just above the key 600,000 level. Factors holding back home construction are limited access to construction credit, tight qualification standards for mortgage borrowers, the rising costs of building materials, developable lots and finding suitable labor.

Beazer Homes ($21.47 vs. $20.17 on May 10): Has been downgraded to strong sell from sell as the stock a new 2013 high at $22.63 on May 15.

DR Horton ($26.80 vs. $26.82 on May 10): Has been downgraded to strong sell from sell as the stock a new 2013 high at $27.74 on May 15.

KB Home ($23.88 vs. $24.16 on May 10): Has been downgraded to sell from hold as the stock set a new 2013 high at $25.14 on May 15.

PulteGroup ($23.35 vs. $22.85 on May 10): Has been downgraded to strong sell from sell and set a new multi-year high at $24.47 on May 15.

Ryland Group ($48.92 vs. $47.76 on May 10): Has been downgraded to strong sell from sell and set a new multi-year high at $50.05 on May 14.

Standard & Pacific ($9.24 vs. $9.44 on May 10): Has been downgraded to strong sell from sell and set a new multi-year high at $9.97 on May 14.

Toll Brothers ($36.13 vs. $36.34 on May 10): Has been downgraded to sell from hold, but remains below its 2013 high at $38.36 set on Jan. 29. Toll Brothers reports quarterly results next Wednesday premarket and 7 cents a share is expected.

The construction sector is 19.9% overvalued.

Sentiment: Sell

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelans scrambled to stock up on toilet paper Thursday as fears of a bathroom emergency spread despite the socialist government's promise to import 50 million rolls.

After years of economic dysfunction, the country has gotten used to shortages of medicines and basic food items like milk and sugar but the scarcity of bathroom tissue has caused unusual alarm.

"Even at my age, I've never seen this," said 70-year-old Maria Rojas. She said she had been looking for toilet paper for two weeks when she finally found it at a supermarket in downtown Caracas.

Thousands of rolls flew off the store's shelves as consumers streamed in and loaded up shopping carts Thursday morning.

"I bought it because it's hard to find," said Maria Perez, walking out with several rolls of paper.

"Here there's a shortage of everything – butter, sugar, flour," she said. But the latest shortage is particularly worrisome "because there always used to be toilet paper."

Economists say oil-rich Venezuela's shortages of some consumer products stem from price controls meant to make basic goods available to the poorest parts of society and the government's controls on foreign currency.

Sentiment: Sell

A sharp pullback in apartment and condominium construction led to a big decline in overall home building in April, even as single-family home construction remained strong, according to government data released Thursday.

The Census Bureau reported that housing starts fell 17% in the month to an annual pace of 853,000. The decline was driven by a 38% drop in starts of buildings with five or more apartments or condo units in them.

Sentiment: Sell

Yes, Europe is in the throws of an economic recovery.

HSBC will redouble cost-cutting efforts, including axing up to 14,000 more jobs globally, as Europe's largest bank seeks to drive earnings and dividend growth in the face of muted revenue.

London-headquartered HSBC is seeking up to $3 billion in additional annual savings by 2016, on top of $4 billion already achieved, but sluggish growth outside Asia, particularly in Europe, means a key target to get costs below 52 percent of revenue has been dropped.

Sentiment: Sell

Just what the economic recovery in Europe needed.

Steel and elevator maker ThyssenKrupp says it will cut 3,000 of its 15,000 office jobs over the next three years to streamline the company's administration.

The company says the move is part of an effort to make its business structure more efficient and transparent. The jobs will be eliminated over the next three years but the company says it plans to work with employee representatives and avoid involuntary layoffs.

The company said Wednesday it lost 656 million euros ($852 million) in the most recent quarter, its fiscal second, widening losses from 587 million euros a year ago. It took a large hit to earnings from a 683 million euro charge for the reduced value of its steel plants in the US and Brazil, which it is trying to sell.

Sentiment: Sell

Boy, these doom and gloom French need to exit their bunkers and smell some flowers.

Yup, this will make everything OK....mommy says so.

France's poor fundamentals are not new: joblessness has soared and growth remains stunted under President Francois Hollande. However, new research shows the French public now have less faith in their economy and the European Union than the Spanish or the Italians.

In a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, 91 percent of French residents said they are negative on their economy, up 10 percentage points from the previous year.

(Read More: Eurogroup Chief: France Must Speed Up Reforms )

"No European country is becoming more dispirited and disillusioned faster than France," according to the Pew report, which describes the French mood as being in "free fall".

The French are also beginning to doubt their commitment to the euro zone, with 77 percent believing European economic integration has made things worse for France.

Asset managers and hedge funds have long been negative on French government bonds, but that trade has so far failed to produce any returns. Instead, a European Central Bank (ECB) assurance last year that it will do everything possible to keep the euro zone together has assured investors and calmed bond markets.

Sentiment: Sell

Oh dear, how embarrassing this FTSE 100 (FTSE International: .FTSE-GB) rally is proving for the great and the good in the City of London. While we should all be celebrating the fact that the U.K. blue chip index is trading just over 300 points away from the all-time high it seems to have caught the smart set a tad off guard.
At the time of writing this article the FTSE is around 1,400 points above our 52 week low of 5,229 and for most of the last year the doom-mongers have been talking of an apocalyptic correction to come. Now, that correction may well be on the cards and the "sell in May" brigade may have their day on the seasonals, but we haven't seen a sniff of a sustained downtick just yet. And that is getting a lot of people very worried.
One seasoned CIO just gave me a shrug of the shoulders, a deep exhalation and a lost look into the distance when he explained to me the problem last week: "We just can't get into the market. Every time we think we are seeing a correction, it just gets bid into aggressively and we have a lot of frustrated institutional clients who can't understand why we haven't got them in."
But a lot of people have made a lot of money from this massive move upwards in equities. Every share is owned by someone. So why the bleak City mood? Simple really. It's because the least lucrative strategy for the investment banks and stockbrokers is "buy and hold" and it's the "buy and hold" investors who have made most of the money so far since those 2012 lows.
As I'm sure you are aware, CNBC anchors are not allowed to trade stocks so my bit of equity market titillation comes in the form of my pension, which is plain old long equities. All the usual blue chip names in the U.K. are in it, plus a few U.S., Japanese and European equities. Seriously, if you wrote down twenty well known, big stocks, that would pretty much be my stock market exposure. It's boring, dull, so passive it's unbelievable and, oh yes, making absolutely shed loads of money.
I'm not b

Sentiment: Sell