Stock Market Update

The S&P 500 futures are down 20 points and are trading 0.7% below fair value, the Nasdaq 100 futures are down 126 points and are trading 0.7% below fair value, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are down 382 points and are trading 0.9% below fair value.

Total housing starts declined 3.1% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.311 million units (Briefing.com consensus 1.340 million) with single-unit starts down 6.9%. Building permits were down 0.6% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.416 million (Briefing.com consensus 1.441 million) with single-unit permits up just 0.5%.

The key takeaway from the report is that it included some weather impact from the hurricanes, evidenced by a 10.2% month-over-month decline in starts in the South -- the nation's largest homebuilding region -- but overall it was a generally soft report on a year-over-year basis with total starts down 4.0% and total permits down 7.7%.