More brutal numbers on home sales, with sales of existing homes falling to a 12 year low.

Note also that existing home sales are becoming a bigger part of home sales in general, as foreclosures and other distressed sales make up a bigger part of the market.

Of course this can’t compare to the financial putrescence that is AIG, which just failed on an asset sale.

It wanted to use the proceeds to pay down some of its debt to the US government, but could not because of a lack of bidders. No one wants their crap.

BTW, Ken Lewis’s gift keeps on giving to Bank of America, because Merrill-Lynch lost $15.84 billion in Q4, about $500 million more than predicted.

There was an unexpected decline in gasoline stocks that drove oil higher today, while the poor housing news and the declines in the stock market have driven the dollar up as people look for safe havens.