Inflation Escalation & Expectations: CPI came in at .5%, 4.2% for the YoY, the 3rd month of acceleration. Core was only .2%, better than the expected .3%. Gasoline is still up 40% YoY. Altogether? Bad, but not as bad as feared.
PPI was a similar story. 1.1% for the month, far above the bad expectations, and 6.5% for the annualized expectation.
University of Michigan's sentiments prelim came out at 48.9, the first improvement in months. Year-ahead inflation was down, and 5-10 year inflations were down even more. While that's still 13% below January's sentiments, this Fed-favorite metric still shows better than expected.
Summer Sales: Existing home sales from NAR came in the highest since December, with 4.17M sales versus the expectation. Applications were up 10%, with both refinances and purchases rising.
On Building: NAHB released their new study on the cost of new builds. Building supplies cost 4% more than last year, but the interesting note was regulations: They now cost 26% of a new home build's price tag, on average more than $131K in costs per new build. Ouch.
Poor Pulte: He lost his nomination for the head of National Intelligence, and will be back to focusing his efforts on FHFA. Oh no, Mr. Bill!
