Mortgage delinquencies for U.S. homes in the second quarter of 2008 moved up six basis points from the previous quarter to 6.41% of all loans outstanding, marking a 29-year high, according to the MBA's National Delinquency Survey released Friday.

A report on housing prices by Global Insight says that although prices for single-family homes are still heading downwards across the country, the rate of decline has gone down and "extreme overvaluation of house prices is essentially non-existent."

The Canadian and U.S. employment reports for August followed by the Canadian Ivey PMI will be today's main highlights for North America. In the afternoon, markets will also hear from San Francisco Fed President Janet Yellen (non-voter).

U.S. nonfarm payrolls declined for the eighth straight month, falling more than expected by a total of 84k jobs in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. The unemployment rate was pushed up four-tenths to 6.1% (6.055%), well above expectations that it would remain at 5.7%.

The most hawkish voting member on the Federal Open Market Committee said on Thursday that it's unclear whether slow growth will moderate inflation into 2009, and said there are even odds that inflation will accelerate from its current level.

When Congress passed the housing rescue bill (The Housing Assistance Act of 2008) in July, we published an article about some of the tax traps contained in the bill, waiting in hiding for the unwary.

Warnings duly noted, further information and the regulations regarding this tax credit are now available. If you have an interest in the program, here are some basic facts...

The Bank of England and European Central Bank rate decisions will kick off the day, followed by the U.S. ADP unemployment report, initial jobless claims, the ISM non-manufacturing index, Department of Energy oil inventories and some Fed-speakers in the afternoon.

Weekly mortgage applications in the United States increased in the week ending Sept. 3, according to data released from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) on Wednesday, which reported a 7.5% week-over-week rise in applications.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits in the United States came in well above expectations, rising to 444k in the week ending Aug. 30, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday. Continuing claims rose to 3.435 million for the week ending Aug. 23.

Markets failed to move on the release of the Fed's Beige Book, an anecdotal summary of the 12 District Banks over the six weeks ending Aug. 25. Economists say the report continues to reveal broad- based weakness, tight credit conditions and elevated price pressures, though not a single region was in outright contraction.