Delayed Reaction? 2-Year & 10-Year Treasury Yields Jump, Mortgage Rates Spike 40 Basis Points in Two Days to 6.39% by Wolf Richter • Feb 6, 2023 • 101 Comments Last week sinks in, and WHOOSH go yields.
Cut the Price by 20% and They Will Come: Homebuilder Meritage Explains New Era after Sales Orders Collapse by 46% by Wolf Richter • Feb 5, 2023 • 154 Comments Cutting construction costs by “aggressively rebidding” projects, and “walking away” from land deals: executives in their own words.
Remember the Hullaballoo in December about “BLS ‘Overstated’ Jobs Growth by 1.1 million: Philadelphia Fed?” Oh Boy, Results Are In by Wolf Richter • Feb 4, 2023 • 84 Comments This is how the internet works. Someone comes up with a meme, and it takes on a life of its own. I’m going to have some fun with it.
Employment of “People with a Disability” Spiked to Record in Hot Labor Market. Applications for Disability Benefits Fell to 20-Year Low by Wolf Richter • Feb 3, 2023 • 42 Comments They added 1.6 million more workers to the labor force, even as the overall labor force has not been able to recover to pre-pandemic trend.
In “Information” Sector, Unemployment Rate Spikes, Jobs Fall for 2nd Month. Rest of Labor Market is Rocking & Rolling. by Wolf Richter • Feb 3, 2023 • 62 Comments Plenty of fuel for inflation. Powell is not going to like this.
Fed’s Balance Sheet Drops by $532 Billion from Peak, Cumulative Loss Reaches $27 billion: February Update on QT by Wolf Richter • Feb 2, 2023 • 140 Comments QT is starting to make a visible dent.
What is the Actual Housing Vacancy Rate, Reported by the Census Bureau? No, not 0.8% and not 5.8% by Wolf Richter • Feb 2, 2023 • 75 Comments A deep dive into the gritty data and formulas that produce these vacancy rates by the Census Bureau.
What Powell Actually Said by Wolf Richter • Feb 1, 2023 • 290 Comments “The historical record cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy. We will stay the course until the job is done,” but it’s not done, Powell said: Core services inflation ex-housing has not come down.
Job Openings Collapse in “Information” Sector Most since Dotcom Bust, But Jump in Vast Other Sectors, amid Overall Low Layoffs & Discharges, Strong Hiring, Still Massive Churn by Wolf Richter • Feb 1, 2023 • 132 Comments In tech & social media, the labor market got shot. In the rest of the economy, it remains very tight.
The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America, January Update: Now Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego Plunge Fastest by Wolf Richter • Jan 31, 2023 • 240 Comments This takes some doing: San Francisco Bay Area house prices plunged faster from the peak than they’d spiked to the peak.
