CNBC and Marketwatch Continue to Report Useless Data...

CNBC headlines: Existing-Home Sales Plunged An Unexpected 7.2% in January

It carries this from Reuters:

Sales of previously owned homes in the United States unexpectedly plunged in January, an industry survey showed Friday, fresh evidence the housing market has yet to find stable ground.

MarketWatch blares:7-mo. low for resold homes

U.S. existing-home sales fall 7.2% to slowest annualized pace since mid-2009. January's decline is second in a row — on heels of steady prior pickup.

There is no mention of the heavy snow cover that began to fall in January. As I mentioned earlier this week, you pretty much have to throw out all economic data for January and February this year because of the unusually heavy snow. Indeed, if you look at the regional housing sales numbers, you will be able to see that the greatest declines were in the regions of the snow fall.

Sales fell 10.9% in the Northeast, 7.4% in the South, 6.9% in the Midwest, and 5.2% in the West.

Given February's heavy snowfall, the numbers are likely to be even more out of whack for the next report..

Bottom line: These numbers coming out are not good or bad, they are distorted by the weather. There won't be any type of meaningful numbers, for most economic data, until March numbers are out.