SAVE THE DATE!  Klaas Financial will be hosting the Tee Time Golf Charity Event benefiting Patriot’s Gateway Community Center on Friday, May 31, 2013, at Aldeen Golf Club in Rockford, IL.  Call Jean at Klaas Financial for details at 815-877-8440.

The US markets were basically flat or up for the 6th straight week. The S&P 500 closed at 1,518 on Friday, its highest level since November 2007 while the NASDAQ closed at 3,194, its highest close in 12 years.

Once again the housing market showed signs of strength last week as Zillow forecasted that housing prices will rise about 3% in 2013. Additionally, Freddie Mac reported that 30 year fixed rate mortgages averaged 3.66% into 2012 which was the lowest average rate seen in 65 years! Therefore, when housing prices are low and rising, coupled with interest rates near their lowest levels in 65 years, high demand will usually follow.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) announced last week that starting in August 2013 they will suspend their Saturday mail service in an effort to save them from extinction. USPS lost approximately $16billion last year and is running out of credit with the Treasury. Recently there have been rumors that the government may consider allowing FedEx or UPS to take over USPS in an effort to privatize the postal service and run it more efficiently.

In other economic news for the week, the US trade deficit narrowed to its lowest level in 3 years. This has many economists believing that an upward revision of the 2012 4th quarter GDP report will soon move the number back into positive territory.