Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Jordan's Royal Palace says the king has sacked his government in the wake of street protests and
has asked an ex-army general to form a new Cabinet. The Royal Palace says Prime Minister Samir Rifai's
Cabinet resigned on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. – Washington Post
Egypt - The situation could be hearing towards a resolution following two critical events that
took place late in NY trading on Mon. 1) First, the new VP, Omar Suleiman, said he has been authorized
by president Mubarak to commence negotiations w/the various opposition factions. The discussions
will involve constitutional and legislative reforms; 2) also – the Egyptian Army declared that it wouldn’t
use force against protesters. As far as Tues’ “million man march”, it appears the initial numbers are
somewhat well below that target (in part b/c officials suspended all transportation into Cairo) although
organizers claim that as many as 2MM people may show up. Separately, the country’s finance minister
said there has been more damage done to the Egyptian economy in the last few days of protests than
during the entire credit crunch (although the Suez Canal appears to be operating smoothly and as usual)
and S&P became the latest rating agency to downgrade the country (came Tues morning and follows the
Moody’s downgrade from Mon). – JPM

Egypt Stock Market Index (MXEG Index)

Very Strong Chicago PMI Reading – Survey 64.5 Actual 68.8 Prior 66.8
Yesterday’s Chicago PMI showed the broadest manufacturing growth in the Chicago area since
the mid-1980s. today, with the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing survey, we will see if it
translates into a nationwide gain. Equity futures are up in anticipation. – FTN Financial
Housing - Eleven percent of the houses in America are empty. This as builders start to get more
bullish, and renting apartments becomes ever more popular – CNBC
 Housing – data from the Census Bureau has revealed that home ownership has declined all the
back to ’98 levels; as of Q4, home ownership stood at 66.5%, down from 67.2% in the year-ago Q. The
ownership level hit a high of 69.2% in ’04 and stayed there for much of the housing boom. Some think
the ownership rate could drop below 65%. – WSJ

Home Ownership Rate since 1980