Labor/Economy

Immediately on the heels of the NAR’s report of an existing home sales spike in April, the Census Bureau reported that new home sales were up as well, to an annualized rate of 343,000 units.

Existing home sales saw a welcome boost in April, up 3.4 percent to an annualized rate of 4.62 million units, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

In its May 2012 Outlook, which was released on Monday, the National Association of Business Economists was a bit more optimistic than in the previous survey, published in January.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the European Commission and the European Central Bank are “drawing up plans” should Greece abandon the euro.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported that initial jobless claims for the week ending May 12 were 370,000, which means that the rate didn’t budge compared with the week before.

The Greek crisis has gone in fairly short order from “Greece will never leave the euro zone” to warnings about the cost of Greece leaving the euro.

U.S. consumers spent a little more in April than in March, but not much more, with the Census Bureau reporting a 0.1 percent month-over-month increase, adjusted for seasonal factors.

After spending some time out of the headlines, the shaky situation in Europe, and its hard-to-predict impact on the world economy, has returned with considerable force to the news.