Reasons to be a Growling Bear

The Numbers:

1. 742,000 jobs were lost in the U.S. on a seasonally adjusted basis in March, up 36,000 from last month's revised figure of 706,000
2. January 2009 housing prices fell 19% (this negates the positive aspect of higher new home sales and new existing home sales
3. A phased GM bankrupcy. Splitting the "good" assets from the "bad" would be the best approach in enabling the market to determine asset values.

The Details:

2 - Source: "The New Year Didn’t Change the Downward Spiral of Residential Real Estate Prices According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices Indices"

Graph illustrating the hardest hit cities:

















Source: http://seattlebubble.com/blog/2009/03/31/case-shiller-seattle-home-prices-just-shy-of-20-off-peak/

Notes:
The U.S. government employment figures will be released this Friday.