Over the holiday-shortened week, there was no Thanksgiving in Europe (figuratively and literally) as concerns remained focused on the ongoing sovereign debt crisis.  From the domestic side, the news was fairly light.

Existing Home Sales were up +1.4%, which was a surprise improvement compared to the 3% drop experienced in September.  Analysts had expected a further drop again this month.  The stronger results were directly related to better single-family sales, while condos/co-ops were unchanged.  The seasonally-adjusted number of homes on the market, however, was unchanged and sales prices fell by about -1% (-4.7% year-over-year). Read more