Markets news on stocks, currencies and oil; The euro rose Wednesday against the dollar as lower-than-expected demand for a European Central Bank (ECB) liquidity funding program eased fears over the Eurozone banking sector; Nonfarm US private employment increased 13,000 from May to June 2010 on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Builder Lennar recently cut some prices more than 15% in Las Vegas, as an expiring tax credit has dented sales.

Farallon is restructuring debt stemming from a big bet on trailer parks, one of the largest attempted workouts involving commercial-property loans sliced and sold in the boom years.

Many real-estate buyers have remained on the sidelines, complaining about the lack of attractive acquisition opportunities. Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. is an exception.

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, China’s largest bank, is rolling out a “large-loan” program targeting commercial real-estate owners in need of loans that exceed $100 million.

The bull-run by real-estate investment trusts ran out of steam during the second quarter as broader stock-market concerns prompted investors to trim their holdings.

Irish Economy:

 No exit from recession in Q1 2010 as GNP fell in quarter while GDP rose
2.7%. Initial estimates for the first quarter of 2010 show an increase, on a seasonally adjusted basis, of 2.7 per cent in GDP and a decline of 0.5 per cent in GNP compared with the previous quarter. In comparison with the corresponding quarter of 2009, GDP at constant prices was 0.7 per cent lower while GNP was 4.2 per cent lower.

The current account deficit for the first
quarter 2010 was €1.62bn.

The Irish Live Register rose by  5,800 to a new all-time record in June: 444,900.

The Central Bank said today that Irish
Non-Financial Credit (NFC), excluding valuation effects and the impact of NAMA
transfers, fell again in May. Residential mortgages (including securitised
mortgages) dipped by €352m during the month, and stood at €145.8bn at end-May
2010, compared with  €144.4bn in May 2008.

Eurozone annual inflation fell to 1.4% in June 2010 compared with the  European Central Bank’s  (ECB) target rate of “below but close to” 2%. The June rate is a flash estimate issued by Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union. It was 1.6% in May. Separately, the ECB announced today that its covered bonds purchase programme has ended. It was a limited form of so-called ‘quantitative easing’ - - a term for what is a mechanism for increasing money in circulation, that is commonly called ‘printing money.’