What we’re reading (6/8)
“US Stocks Fall As Investors Weigh An Economic Slowdown And Oil Surges To A 13-Week High” (Insider). “US stocks dropped Wednesday, as investors continued to fret over the prospect for the economy and as oil jumped to a 13-week high.”
“Tech’s Decade Of Stock-Market Dominance Ends, For Now” (Wall Street Journal). “The S&P 500’s information-technology sector has dropped 20% in 2022 through Wednesday, its worst start to a year since 2002. Its gap with the broader S&P 500, which is down 14%, is the largest since 2004. The declines have prompted investors to yank a record $7.6 billion this year from technology-focused mutual and exchange-traded funds through April[.]”
“Mortgage Demand Falls To The Lowest Level In 22 Years Amid Rising Rates And Slowing Home Sales” (CNBC). “Mortgage rates are back on the upswing, after a brief decline in May, and the housing market is still suffering from a lack of listings. As a result, mortgage demand continues to drop. Total mortgage application volume fell 6.5% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Demand hit the lowest level in 22 years.”
“Lumber Price Gets Chopped In Half Amid Chill In Housing Markets” (Bloomberg). “Lumber futures fell as low as $568.40 per 1,000 board feet in Chicago on Wednesday, extending a slump to about 50% this year. Higher interest rates and soaring home prices are starting to put the brakes on home sales, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.”
“Better.com Allegedly A Good Deal Worse Than It Told SPAC Investors” (Dealbreaker). “Unlike nearly 1,000 of her former colleagues, Sarah Pierce didn’t get canned by mortgage lender Better.com via mass Zoom call just before Christmas. Nor was she among those who found out they were unemployed via unexplained severance check three months later, because she had been fired the month before. And unlike those let go for “stealing” from the company by being lazy or because its rosy projections for itself weren’t panning out, Pierce says she got the heave-ho for gently suggesting that Better.com and CEO Vishal Garg not issue those projections simply to save its SPAC deal, because they were untrue.”
