The housing index factor.

A disappointing report on housing starts made investors nervous about the economy Tuesday and sent stocks lower even as profits at many companies exceed expectations.

The market will get another measure of the housing market's health Friday with a report on existing home sales.

Housing starts means the number of residential building construction projects begun during a specific period of time, usually a month; a key economic indicator.The latest reports are only a slight decrease but wall street traders are fast to take this as an excuse to lock in profits.

The NAR Public Affairs Office issues a news release on or near the 25th of each month with the latest existing-home sales figures. The releases include analysis and quotes by NAR's Chief Economist Lawrence Yun(photo) regarding the sales volume, prices, inventory and interest rates.

Next release: Existing-Home Sales for September 2009 will be released on October 23, 2009, 10am ET.

The Dow on tuesday,20/10/09 is now 23 days to index futures expiry.
Asian index futures;8 days to go.
9:30am:--Bearish hangman spike open.

Better-than-expected companies earnings means selling the news.

10:30am:--First hour low retracement to MAV 1.

The Producer Price Index for September made a month-over-month decrease of 0.6%.

11:30am:--Bearish spike to a new hourly low with dragonfly doji checkmate.

Housing starts for September came in at 590,000, shy of the 610,000 unit rate expected.

12:30noon:--Hoovering near the low ending morning session with bullish harami follows.

Swings in the dollar have had a significant impact on trading this session.

1:30pm:--Dancing around the bear pivot,directionless.

A bounce by the U.S. dollar also undercut stocks; basic materials stocks and energy stocks were hit particularly hard, given their correlation to commodity prices.

2:30pm:--A bullish engulfing.

There is no leadership to the broader market.

3:30pm:--late retracement to MAV2 with spinning top.

4:00pm:--Bullish harami.

A rebound.

It's quite an agenda that 7 days before any index futures expiry,the Dow being world market leaders will make a pullback or retracement.Since it has earlier hammered down,so it's time for a slight reprieve before further volatility emerge again.

Tuesday's Dow has completely covered the body of that on Monday,leaving behind a lower shadow for further foul play.