Financial Update for Feb. 26, 2009

· TSX +72.97(Reuters) as energy issues gained on stronger oil prices and financials got a boost from smaller-than-expected drop in quarterly profit at Toronto-Dominion Bank .
· DOW-80.05
· Dollar -.72c to 79.71USD
· Oil +$2.54 to $42.50US per barrel.
· Gold -$3.40 to $965.70 USD per ounce
· Canadian 5 yr bond yields +.08bps to 2.11

· http://www.financialpost.com/markets/market_data/money-yields-can_us.html

Associated Press DETROIT - General Motors Corp. says it lost US$9.6 billion in the fourth quarter and burned through $6.2 billion in cash as it sought government help to avoid running out of cash.

America's biggest domestic automaker lost $30.9 billion for all of 2008 as it struggled against a U.S. sales slump and a global recession.

GM has received $13.4 billion in federal loans and its executives are in Washington, D.C., Thursday to talk to the Obama administration about the company's request for up to $30 billion.

First-time homebuyers could lead real estate rebound

Kristine Owram The Canadian Press

Lower home prices and shifting demographics mean first-time buyers could lead a rebound in Canada's real estate market, experts said yesterday at a real estate conference in Toronto.

Phil Soper, president and chief executive of Brookfield Real Estate Services, said rookies are the largest category of buyers in the real estate market, accounting for close to 70 per cent of all transactions at the height of the housing boom.

However, they've been scared away in droves by the economic downturn, which was led in part by record foreclosure rates in the United States as homeowners defaulted on their mortgage debt.

Such a lack of first-time buyers can grind the real estate market to a halt, Soper told Scotiabank's annual real estate outlook conference.

"When new buyers stop entering the market, it's like sand in the gears,'' he said.

Although Canada has managed to duck the severity of the housing crisis in the U.S., the 10-year boom that saw housing prices soar, particularly in the western provinces, ended abruptly last year.

Canadian housing starts -- the number of new residential construction projects -- were down to 211,056 in 2008, about eight per cent lower than an average of almost 230,000 in the period from 2004 to 2007. Resale activity fell by 17 per cent in 2008 while home prices dipped by one per cent, according to Scotiabank.

Things seem to have worsened dramatically in January, with housing starts falling to an eight-year low of 153,500 annualized units and home prices down 11 per cent year-over-year.

And the bank predicted the decline will continue through 2009, with housing starts forecast to fall to around 155,000 units, another 15 to 20 per cent decline in the number of resales and a 10 per cent drop in prices.

But Adrienne Warren, a senior economist and real estate specialist at Scotiabank, said this points to a buyers' market.

"Certainly the softening we've seen in prices, the increase in listings, is giving first-time buyers more choice,'' Warren said.