GOOD DAY FOR: Happy endings, after Moody’s Economy.com forecast that the U.S. housing market will probably hit bottom, finally, in the fourth quarter of this year. By then, housing prices will have dropped by at least 20 percent, peak to trough, in about 100 metro areas, with declines topping 50 percent in areas like California and Florida. The forecast assumes more robust government action in the housing market. (Reuters)
BAD DAY FOR: Narcissism, as sales of Allergen’s anti-wrinkle treatment Botox fell about 3 percent last quarter, its skin-plumping injections lost 8.8 percent, and its breast-implant sales fell 12 percent. Doctors and pharmaceutical companies had expected a recession-related decline in expensive cosmetic procedures, such as breast implants, but they were expecting sales of Botox and other injection treatments to stay healthy. (The New York Times)
