Market News

The Conference Board said last week that its leading economic index fell for a 15th consecutive month, signaling slowing economic activity ahead. That is the index’s longest streak of declines since a span from the spring of 2007 through early 2009. The U.S. economy fell into a recession in December 2007 and didn’t exit until June 2009.

Companies going public in the U.S. through traditional IPOs raised just $9.1 billion in the first half of the year, far below the $27 billion average for the same period over the past decade.

Blackstone said its assets climbed to $1 trillion in the second quarter from $991.3 billion at the end of the first quarter and $940.8 billion a year earlier. Inflows were $30.1 billion in the quarter, with insurance and credit, including real-estate credit, pushing it over the threshold.

Existing home sales decreased 3.3% in June from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.16 million. That was the slowest sales pace since January. June sales fell 18.9% from a year earlier.

A report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed that, on average, the headquarters of federal agencies are about 20% occupied each week. Weekly attendance in the bottom quarter of surveyed offices is a measly 9%, and not one reported attendance above 50%. Compare that with corporate offices in New York, where average in-office attendance surpassed 50% last month.

The occupancy rate for senior-housing facilities was 83.7% in the second quarter of 2023. That is up from the pandemic bottom but still below the 87.1% rate in the first quarter of 2020. Since the supply of new senior housing buildings is relatively low, analysts point to a lack of demand. One possibility: Remote and hybrid work schedules are keeping many older Americans from moving into senior-living communities.

Hotel rates in the top 25 U.S. markets were up 9.3% year-to-date through May from the same period a year earlier.

Airfares shot up 20% between the start of the pandemic and June 2022; they’ve fallen 19% since, including 8% last month.

U.S. inflation eased last month to its slowest pace in more than two years as underlying price pressures cooled.

After more than two years of booming sales and price increases, the U.S. housing market sank this year under the weight of high mortgage rates. In April, home prices declined year over year for the first time in 11 years.