Global Economic Recovery Watch

1. Australia Leading and Coincident Indexes Improve in May -- "The Conference Board Leading Economic Index (LEI) for Australia increased 0.3 percent and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index (CEI) increased 0.2 percent in May. The Conference Board LEI for Australia remains on a rising trend, which began in the middle of last year. However, its six-month growth rate has moderated in recent months. At the same time, The Conference Board CEI for Australia has continued to increase this year, and its six-month growth has been fairly stable. Taken together, the current behavior of the composite indexes suggests that the economic expansion is likely to continue, albeit at a modest pace in the near term."

2. Las Vegas June Home Sales Increase from May -- "A total of 5,397 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area in June, up 23.1 percent from May but down 2.2 percent from a year earlier.  The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold in the Las Vegas metro area in June was $136,290, up 1.7 percent from $134,0000 in May and up 1 percent from $135,000 a year earlier.

Foreclosure resales – homes that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – fell to 46.4 percent of all resales in June, down from 49.5 percent in May and down from a near-record 70.0 percent a year ago.  Foreclosure resales have declined each month since they peaked at 73.7 percent in May of 2009. Last month’s figure was the lowest since foreclosure resales were 43.3 percent of the resale market in January 2008."