11/13/09 - theGrio & CNBC Market Wrap Up

11/13/09 - theGrio & CNBC Market Wrap Up

Investors digested several quarterly sales reports from retailers, while the market also had to sift through several reports on housing. Existing home sales increased by 11 percent during the third quarter, helped by the first time home-buyer tax credit, and the government announced more than 650,000 mortgage modifications are underway. We received mixed news on home foreclosures. The number of foreclosures dipped by three percent in October as more than 332,000 homes received a foreclosure filing. But Realtytrac projects a record number of filings in 2010 due to the high unemployment rate. Job creation may be the solution to the housing crisis. The national unemployment rate is 10.2 percent, its highest level in more than twenty-six years. For African-Americans, that rate stands at 15.7 percent.