Articles

Total construction starts fell 7% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.1 trillion, according to Dodge Construction Network. Nonbuilding and residential starts fell 32% and 1%, respectively. Conversely, nonresidential building starts gained 8% during the month. Read More

Home Depot entered into an agreement to acquire International Designs Group (IDG)—a construction materials conglomerate that includes UMI, Construction Resources (CR), Marva, European Granite & Marble Group, and Cancos Tile & Stone—from private equity firm Mill Point Capital. Read More

Lowe’s reported Q3 2023 net sales of $20.5 billion, a 12.8% decline compared to sales of $23.5 billion in the same quarter last year. Read More

U.S. hard-surface imports in September 2023 continued to decline, with the $395.7 million in total value falling by 10% from August and 18.7% from the same time last year. Quartz-surface imports continue to lag behind last year, with September's volume falling by 25%. Marble, meanwhile, managed to increase in year-over-year volume -- by a scant 0.6%, but it's a positive. Read More

"Inflation is falling faster than expected across advanced economies, marking a turning point in central banks’ two-year battle against surging prices,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “Declines in consumer price growth, to below 5% in the U.K. last month and around 3% in the U.S. and eurozone, are fueling expectations that central banks could take their feet off the brakes and pivot to cutting interest rates next year. Read More

Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes in November fell six points to 34 in November, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). Read More

A then-obscure think tank named the Roosevelt Institute released a report in 2015 that called for a new approach to economic policy. It was unabashedly progressive, befitting the history of the institute, which was created by trusts honoring Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. The report called for higher taxes on the rich, a higher minimum wage, more regulation of Wall Street, more support for labor unions, more aggressive antitrust enforcement and more government investment in economic growth. National news outlets covered the report while also noting how much of a break it represented with decades of economic policy by both the Democratic and Republican Parties. There was ample reason to be skeptical that much would change. Read More

Retail sales kept up a long streak of year-over-year gains in October even though the rate of growth continued to slow, National Retail Federation chief economist Jack Kleinhenz said in response to the U.S. Census Bureau’s release of monthly retail sales data today. “Fourth-quarter consumer spending stepped off on a more moderate pace, as expected,” Kleinhenz said. “The staying power of the American consumer has been the story of 2023, but financial conditions have tightened appreciably in recent months, curbing the purchasing power fueled by job and wage gains. Nonetheless, continued consumer resilience is still expected for the holiday season.” Read More

The Home Depot reported sales of $37.7 billion for Q3 2023, a decrease of 3.0% from Q3 2022. Comparable sales for Q3 2023 decreased 3.1%, and comparable sales in the U.S. decreased 3.5%. Read More

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) was unchanged in October on a seasonally adjusted basis, after increasing 0.4% in September, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Read More