US: Not all US companies are positive on the recovery

Management teams of US companies appear to be in wait-and-see mode as they can still see several hurdles the economy needs to get over in order to ensure future growth.

One of these is the continued weakness of the housing market, although there have been a few encouraging signs. The government-initiated first-time homebuyers incentives were extended until 1 April 2010, which raised concerns this is only a temporary uptick in new home sales and is just accelerating demand that would have come later in the year. This idea can be supported by the decline in new home sales,  which peaked in November after the original tax credit had expired. There is still a large amount of shadow inventory – houses that are being, or have been, foreclosed and are sitti...