The good news is, home prices are on the rise. The bad news, the pace of home sales growth is slowing down. That's how things were for June anyway, according to the National Association of Realtors. When it was all said and done though, we can probably consider it a wash that neither bolsters nor dampens the bigger housing recovery trend. We mentioned to you on Friday how this week would really round out the real estate report card, so we'll be looking at an updated version of this chart after we hear about last month's new home sales on Wednesday. But, there's still enough data in hand to start taking the bigger look now. As of June, existing homes were selling at a pace of 5.08 million per year. That's shy of the 5.25 million the pros were looking for, and weaker than the prior month's pace of 5.18 million. Still, it's a solid number... the second-highest in years. (May's was the highest in years.) As for home prices, the NAR said prices were up nicely, up 13.35% from the year ago number. The National Association of Realtors home price figure trend jives with numbers from Case-Shiller and the FHFA. Pessimists will be quick to point out that the slowdown in the number of units sold last month suspiciously coincides with the uptick in mortgage rates, leading one to conclude that even the slightest bump in yields has already upset the vulnerable housing recovery. I'm calling partial BS on that idea, however. The vast majority of the deals closed in June were set up in May, before most lenders had a chance to ratchet up rates. Besides, I suspect it would be just as likely we'd see a "hurry up and buy before rates go any higher" effect, pushing people into the buying a home. We didn't see any evidence of that either. Last month's activity was right about where it should have been, and the trend is still broadly bullish. Wednesday's new home sales numbers will be a chance to confirm or refute any interest rate-driven real estate theories. We'll get the FHFA home price index report on Tuesday, which will confirm or refute the current home price trend. My bottom line until proven otherwise? Though perhaps slowing a little on a percentage (as it should over time), I still think the housing rebound is more than intact. OK, on to bigger and better things. You Asked, We Answered You know, one of the things we've always done to try and distinguish ourselves from, well, every other market-related commentary site out there is having a willingness to interact with our readers. We've mentioned to you before how we read every comment and question you guys (and gals) send in, but sometimes, we just need to repeat it. So, here goes.... if you've got something to say or ask - even if it's ugly - let us know. 'Nuff said? Great. I just figured now was an ideal time to make the point again, since we have two recent reader questions that all our readers may have on their mind. Cesar writes: After you have been up-dating recommendations from earlier this year, may I bring up yet another one, namely SemiLEDS (LEDS), which has pulled back significantly. If you're view on this stock is favorable wouldn't that be a nice entry point? Hoping you can include your view in the next newsletter. First and foremost, my bad. SemiLEDS was just a name I forgot about after we removed it from our Featured Stock list a few weeks ago. Not being a Featured Stock isn't a downgrade, nor does it mean it's not worth owning. We just try to focus on stocks that traders care about the most when they care about them, so when LEDS fell off the radar a few weeks ago, we moved on to other names. It's still a stock worth watching, however. Anyway.... You know, despite the fact that we made some very good money with SemiLEDS a couple of different times this year, I don't know that I'd call it a buy right now. You may recall that we went bullish on LEDS on April 17th, only to lock in about an 80% gain on the trade by the 30th of that same month. We dove back into it on May 6th after a pullback, and caught a smaller (but still fruitful) runup then. Our last 'buy' call - and bear in mind this was never going to be a long-term position like Xerox (XRX) or J.C. Penney (JCP) were intended to be - was on June 10th. That's the one that didn't take. Instead, SemiLEDS fell under a key short-term support line a few days later, effectively ending our interest in the stock. [Sorry for not mentioning it at the time, but we always seem to have more to say than time to say it in.] Cesar is right that it's better to buy on the dips than buying at new highs, but I don't think LEDS is the kind of stock right now that you want to take those kinds of swings with. It certainly was then, but it's not now. That early July implosion did a lot of technical damage, and I don't see the company igniting the kind of buying interest it was able to ignite then. If you still want in, I'd wait for more evidence of a rebound. That's just me though. Peter wrote in a few days ago: Given silver's recent bounce over $20 (back under today), do you feel that we have seen the bottom or is that still to come? My gut says the latter, but I would appreciate your latest thoughts on this and gold's outlook. Thanks for the question Peter. I think it depends on your timeframe. I think at some point in time within the next few months, gold futures will move under last month's long-term low of $1179 per ounce. In the meantime though, after today's break above the recently-developed ceiling at $1298, there's enough upside left to trade in a bullish direction. My mental target as of today is $1476, which was not only a major high in early May, but is also where you can find a major Fibonacci retracement line (not shown on our chart). It's also where the key 200-day moving average line (red) will be by the time that area can be tested. Once we get there - once the majority of traders are sure it's safe to get back in the water - I've got a feeling the bigger tide is going to turn against gold again. Only this time, that tide's going to carry gold to an even lower low. I don't want to talk downside targets just yet; we'll talk about it when the time comes. For the time being, just know gold cleared a big hurdle today, and has some room to run without any major stumbling blocks until $1476 per ounce. The gold bulls will respond by saying gold's fundamentals are still bullish. My only response to that is, gold doesn't have any fundamentals that matter anymore. Gold has become an enigma, where the only thing we have of any value is the shape of the chart.... a chart that illustrates the ever-changing and somewhere predictable market opinion of gold. Hope that helps. Sorry we didn't get a chance to look at the overall market today. Then again, I'm not sure there's anything new to add. Stocks advanced a little on Monday, following through on Friday's effort. But, there's still a lot of doubt about whether or not the market's going to be able to dole out a big gain heading out of July and into August. The volume behind today's rally was minimal. I can see the S&P 500 falling back more than a little, regrouping, and then restarting this rally. The VIX is just too low and the market's too overbought to get a good rally going from here. Like I said though, we'll look at that later on this week... probably tomorrow. I'm also aiming to get you a new trading idea this week, so stick around. If you know you need a pick soon, however, then the SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity is your best bet. The SCN EO entered a new trade on Friday, and that window of opportunity is still open. It's a great pick too. The Elite Opportunity already scored a huge double-digit gain with this stock, and after pulling back after they locked in that first gain, the chart's ready to roll again. That ticker alone may be worth trying out - for free - for a couple of weeks. Here's how. Or, copy and paste the following link in your browser: http://www.smallcapnetwork.com/?vmpd_ckstr[click_track]=SCN+Newsletter&vmpd_ckstr_redirect=/pages/SCNEO/v1/