The U.S.’s S&P Global Flash Composite Purchasing Managers Index—which gauges activity in the country’s manufacturing and services sectors—rose to 55.0 in July from 54.8 in June, marking a 27-month high.
Job Market
The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1% last month—the first time it has crossed above 4% since 2021. That’s still low by historical measures, but it’s up from 3.4% early last year.
Government Offices
A Government Accountability Office review of 24 federal agencies last year estimated that 17 of them used on average one-quarter or less of the capacity of their headquarters buildings during a three-week sample period.
Market Rotation
The small-cap index rose 1.7% this past week, extending its 2024 advance to 7.8%, while the S&P 500 dropped 2%.
Hotel Spreads
In comparing spreads of hotel deals closed in January and closed mid-year, it’s 50 to 75 basis points more today than at the beginning of the year.
New York Multi
The torrent of supply has pushed Manhattan’s office availability rate to 17.9% by the end of June, down a fraction from the 18.1% all-time-high recorded in the first quarter.
SASB Bonds
There are about $260 billion of the deals, known as single-asset, single-borrower bonds, that purchased skyscrapers, shopping centers and other properties. These so-called SASB bonds were meant to be ultrasafe, but the rate of loans at or near default has nearly tripled over two years, hitting 8.7% in 2024.
Private Credit
Last year, private credit assets topped $2.1 trillion globally, most of this in the U.S.
Residential Evictions
Even with the higher eviction rates in several major cities, evictions more broadly have settled to roughly where they were before the pandemic. The first five months of the year had about 422,000 filings for eviction across the 33 cities and an additional 10 states tracked, down slightly from prepandemic norms in those same places.
U.S. Workers
The number of U.S. workers who quit their jobs in one month peaked at 3% in April 2022, prompting many employers to boost salaries, give more time off and offer flexible schedules in an attempt to retain talent. Since then the U.S. rate of quitting has drifted below prepandemic levels to 2.2%, where it has held steady so far this year.