by Calculated Risk on 3/18/2009 11:08:00 PM

Sign of the Times. Click on photo for larger image in new window. Credit: Nades. This is on Mission Blvd in Pacific Beach, San Diego.

The big news ... the Fed announced they have "decided to purchase up to $300 billion of longer-term Treasury securities over the next six months" and also buy more MBS. This is quantitative easing (printing money) ... and this should lead to lower mortgages rates and lower long term rates. I've seen forecasts of 30 year mortgage rates in the 4% to 4.5% range for conforming loans. This will have a some stimulus effect.

The Architecture Billings Index is still near a record low suggesting further weakness in non-residential construction investment later this year.

And here is some more on the two eventual bottoms for housing: the first will be single-family housing starts, new home sales, and residential investment, and the second will be for house prices.

And some futures:

Bloomberg Futures.

CBOT mini-sized Dow

CME Globex Flash Quotes

Futures from barchart.com

And the Asian markets.

And a graph of the Asian markets.

Best to all.