21 months of gains in house prices

MarketWatch: U.S. home prices edged up in November, CoreLogic Inc. said today. Prices rose 0.1 percent on a monthly basis to take year-on-year gains to 11.8 percent, the 21st straight month of year-over-year gains. CoreLogic’s pending home price forecast a 0.1 percent monthly drop for December and a year-on-year gain of 11.5 percent,  which would be the best year since 2005. In Greater Des Moines,prices increased 4.6 percent over the same one-year period and 0.9 percent from October to November. 

Trade deficit dropped more than predicted
Bloomberg: The U.S. trade deficit shrank more than forecast in November as oil imports dropped to the lowest level in three years and exports climbed to a record. The gap narrowed 12.9 percent to $34.3 billion, smaller than projected by any economist surveyed by Bloomberg and the least since October 2009, according to figures released today by the U.S. Commerce Department. The gain in sales to overseas customers was led by aircraft and chemicals.

App-ing around to the tune of $10 billion
RTTNews: Apple Inc. said today that customers spent more $10 billion at the App Store in 2013, topping $1 billion in December alone, according to a release. The company said App Store customers downloaded almost 3 billion apps in December, making it the most successful month in App Store history. Apple’s developers have now earned $15 billion on the App Store.