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Home Prices Rise Slower Than Inflation in August

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Pre-market futures are up again this morning, one week away from U.S. midterm elections and one day away from new Fed policy announced by the latest FOMC meeting. Oil prices are high but holding steady — $100 per barrel (/bbl) on WTI and $114/bbl on Brent crude — but investors feel better about the AI trade after Anthropic (ANT) announced its IPO yesterday. The Dow is +117 points at this hour, the Nasdaq +164 and the S&P 500 +28 points. The small-cap Russell 2000 is +12.

Case-Shiller Home Prices Advance Slower than Inflation

Reporting in arrears from most other monthly economic data, the Case-Shiller Home Price Index for August advanced +2.1% overall, +2.7% on the 20-city survey. This was 10 basis points (bps) ahead of expectations and the +2.5% reported a month ago. However, this is slower than the August CPI Inflation Rate of +3.4% (which rose 30 bps in the most recent CPI data), so the real value of housing remains negative.

Chicago once again led all cities in the 20-city survey with +6.7% housing value growth, coming down 20 bps from the +6.9% reported in the previous three months. That said, this is the sixth-straight month Chicago is at the top of housing value increases. Seattle — which a couple years ago was among the highest growers in housing value — was at the bottom of the list, -2.0%.

Durable Goods Orders Improve to +1.8%

Analysts were expecting a bounce-back in Durable Goods Orders for September, to +1.8% following the 0% posted a month ago. This is 10 bps ahead of estimates. Non-defense, ex-aircraft — a proxy for “normal” enterprise durable goods growth — gained +0.5% for the month. Shipments, a key metric which feeds into monthly GDP numbers, gained +1.2% last month.

We see an acceleration in orders for computers, machinery, etc. which illustrates continued growth in physical property of the AI space. Also, unfilled orders rose, creating notable backlogs. This is good for the prospects of healthy Durable Goods moving forward.

Q3 Earnings at a Glance: BA, UPS, KO

One of two of the world’s biggest aircraft makers, Boeing (BA - Free Report) , posted a worse-than-expected loss of -$0.34 per share this morning, a -62% miss from -$0.21 expected in the Zacks consensus. Revenues of $24.19 billion narrowly missed estimates, by -0.39%. Shares are down -2.12% on the news, deepening the stock’s -13% hole year to date. It’s been a tough five years for Boeing, with share prices down -10% over that time period. 

Delivery and logistics giant United Parcel Service (UPS - Free Report) , on the other hand, beat estimates on its bottom line by six cents to $1.69 per share (still down from the $1.74 reported in the year-ago quarter). Revenues of $22.85 billion surpassed expectations by +2.70%, and the company raised guidance going forward. But Supply Chain weakness and a mixed overall picture is causing a slight selloff this morning. 

Coca-Cola (KO - Free Report) also posted a beat-ands-raise on its Q3 report ahead of today’s opening bell, with earnings of $0.91 per share ahead of estimates by four cents (and its year-over-year earnings of $0.82 per share). Revenues of $13.35 billion bettered expectations by +3.3%, though investors have decided to sell the news following this release, down -1.4%, as investors shift back to AI companies this morning.

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