The fears of Greece and the ability of the Euro-zone to contain the damage without contagion is dominating forex and equity markets. It also overshadowed some positive data from the US, following reports yesterday which showed the US economy’s recovery continuing to gain momentum.

Today we had two reports, pending home sales and factory orders.

Pending home sales rose 5.3% as government tax relief boosted demand in the recovering housing sector. The index, which measures contract signing on previously owned homes is a strong leading indicators for existing home sales. Existing home sales surged 6.8% in March after pending home sales were up 8.3% in February. Today’s reading indicates another strong month of sales for April. How the housing market holds up following the expiration of the government’s tax credit remains to be seen.

For context here is a look at existing home sales over the last 10 years. Sales saw a spike in late ’09 as the home-buyer credit was due to expire before being extended.

Meanwhile, factory orders were up 1.3% in March, beating forecasts of a 0.1% decline. That followed a better than expected February in which orders were up 1.3% compared to the originally stated 0.6% rise. Excluding transportation orders were up 3.1%.

That’s two strong months in a row, and the 11th rise in orders in the last 12 months which is giving the manufacturing a V-shaped (or perhaps a U-shaped) recovery.

Combined the two pieces of data show us that the manufacturing sector continues to hum along, with yesterday’s April ISM manufacturing index posting its best reading in 6 years.

Here too we see the V-shape of the recovery in manufacturing.While today’s data may not sway the minds of Fed officials in regards to their outlook on interest rates – strong employmetn figures and higher inflation would do that – today’s data makes a sharp contrast with the Euro-zone/Greece crisis.