Stock Market Update
17-Jul-26 09:18 ET
Futures point to lower open as momentum unwind continues
Market is Closed
[BRIEFING.COM] S&P futures vs fair value: -92.00. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -606.00.
The stock market remains on track for a firmly lower open this morning as this week's momentum unwind continues, exacerbated by a Bloomberg report that cheaper Chinese AI models could reduce capex spend on the AI buildout.
On the data front, housing starts increased 19.0% month-over-month in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.427 million units (Briefing.com consensus: 1.328 million), paced by a 76% increase in multi-unit starts. Building permits--aleading indicator--declined 3.0% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.367 million (Briefing.com consensus: 1.403 million), with single-unit permits down 2.4%.
The key takeaway from the report is that there wasn't any growth in single-unit starts or permits, which isn't a positive read for a housing market pinched by affordability issues.
Separately, import prices were up 0.3% month-over-month in June and up 7.1% year-over-year. Excluding fuel, they were up 0.4% month-over-month and up 4.2% year-over-year. Export prices fell 0.6% month-over-month but were up 10.2% year-over-year. Excluding agricultural products, export prices were down 0.7% month-over-month and were up 10.6% year-over-year.
The key takeaway is that the outsized year-over-year increases for import and export prices goes to show that there is ample inflation still to contend with here and abroad.
