NEWS
U.S. Stocks Brought Home The Gold

U.S. stocks closed out a strong week of gains, while gold and precious metals shined. With two weeks left before the summer slump in trading volumes officially ends, many investors and traders are looking for the bulls to continue riding this momentum to new highs. Let’s see what you missed. 👀

Today's issue covers housing’s latest hot-button items, what’s driving gold’s global breakout, and MSG Entertainment approaching all-time highs. 📰

Here’s the S&P 500 heatmap. 8 of 11 sectors closed green, with financials (+0.69%) leading and industrials (-0.12%) lagging.

And here are the closing prices: 

Most bullish/bearish symbols on Stocktwits at the close: 📈 $SLXN, $MRVI, $ZCAR, $ONCO, $APDN 📉 $HRB, $IEP, $SEDG, $TPST, $SCLX*

*If you’re a business and want to access this data via our API, email us.

ECONOMY
Housing Remains A Hot-Button Issue 🏡

Whether you’re a stock market investors, a homeowner yourself, or just anyone interested in the U.S. economy, you know how many things impact the all-important housing market.

This week we received some key data showing U.S. housing starts sliding to a four-year low, with single family units falling being partially offset by an uptick multi-family starts. Overall starts were down 16% YoY in July, June’s numbers were revised down, and residential permits dipped 4%. 🔻

These numbers come in just a day after the NAHB Housing Market Index signaled homebuilder confidence hitting its lowest level of the year. Buyers remain hesitant due to record prices and high interest rates, with both present sales and traffic readings showing weakness. 😟

Meanwhile, with the Presidential election coming up, both candidates are ramping up their messaging around the country’s housing crisis.

Vice-President and democratic candidate Kamala Harris announced a plan that builds on proposals President Joe Biden has already announced.

Of the many key initiatives included, the parts that got people talking were:

• Up to $25,000 in down-payment assistance for first-time homebuyers

• Tax incentives for building starter homes sold to first-time homebuyers

• Removing tax benefits for investors who buy large numbers of single-family rental homes

With a record share of U.S. homes worth more than $1 million, U.S. residents are desperately awaiting relief from the massive supply/demand imbalance that’s existed for the last decade. 🤯

Time will tell which public/private solutions eventually make a dent, but for now, homebuilding stocks continue to hover near all-time highs as investors bet this structural imbalance will only benefit them going forward. 👷

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