US Home Prices Showed 'Forceful Deceleration'

MARKET MOVERS

• Home prices in July decelerate at the fastest pace on record. S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller’s unadjusted index tracking home prices nationally showed a 15.8% annual gain in July—a significantly slower increase than June’s 18.1% gain. Although U.S. housing prices remain substantially above their year-ago levels, July’s report reflects a forceful deceleration.

• Hertz & BP partner on electric-vehicle charging stations. BP Pulse, which is BP’s EV charging business, would power and manage Hertz’s charging infrastructure under the memorandum of understanding, the companies said. The charging infrastructure will be open to taxi and ride-sharing drivers, as well as the general public, the companies said. Read more here.

• Orders for long-lasting goods fall for a second straight month. New orders for durable goods—products meant to last at least three years—declined by 0.2% to a seasonally adjusted $272.7 billion in August compared with the prior month, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The figures reflect continued demand from businesses and consumers—and rising prices.

• Lumber prices fall back to around their pre-covid levels. Lumber's lowest level in more than two years points to a sharp slowdown in construction. Lumber futures ended Monday at $410.80 per thousand board feet, down about one-third from a year ago and more than 70% from their peak in March, when the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates to fight inflation.

• Cathie Wood’s new fund gives small investors access to the VC market for just $500. The actively managed Ark Venture Fund invests in 70% private firms and 30% public companies focused on technologically enabled innovation, and selectively in other venture capital funds, Ark Invest said Tuesday. The fund is available to individual investors initially through investing app Titan, a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz. Read more here.

WHAT TO WATCH

• Amazon is having a second "Prime Day" event. The company announced that it is holding a second 'Prime Day' sale on Oct 11-12. Motley Fool analyst Jason Moser says that this is a sensible thing to do particularly now that the holiday season is just around the corner. This enables them to select particular categories of merchandise to promote. Source(1:31)

• Goldman ‘significantly’ cuts oil forecasts but sees a bounce from current levels. “We significantly downgrade our oil forecasts due to weakening macro, but remain bullish the forwards as we pivot into the structural, supply-side story,” the firm wrote in a note to clients. Courvalin now forecasts Brent averaging $100 per barrel during the fourth quarter, down from a prior target of $125. Read more here.

• The U.K. could trigger a global crisis as the pound collapses while bond yields soar, Larry Summers says. Since the pound is considered a global reserve currency, a balance-of-payments crisis in the U.K. could reverberate beyond Britain’s borders, Summers said in a series of tweets on Tuesday. Summers slammed the budget as “utterly irresponsible”.

• There will be a fast reduction in non-essentials. In Q4 you’ll see steep discounts and lower-than-expected consumer demand across non-essentials such as clothing and computer parts. Anything that has a 5-year lifespan (such as a fridge/HVAC unit) will see numbers plummet. This means the end of Q4 and end of Q1 you can get a good deal on appliances as companies become desperate for quotas. Read more here.

• Morgan Stanley warns of something worse than a ‘Normal Recession’. Morgan Stanley is looking closely at the U.S. business earnings story and the impact of corporate profits on equities, which have been on a wild ride in recent months. They think it’s unavoidable to avoid an earnings recession. Businesses are reluctant to cut staff in the face of deteriorating economic conditions and as demand falls would put more pressure on profit margins.