Multifamily momentum: U.S. housing starts rebounded as a sharp increase in multifamily construction offset continued weakness in single-family homebuilding, pushing overall starts to a stronger pace. The surge in apartment construction helped drive the gain, while high mortgage rates, elevated home prices and affordability challenges continued to weigh on single-family demand. Bloomberg has the full story.
Inflation warning: U.S. import prices unexpectedly rose in June as higher costs for goods from China and other trading partners pushed import inflation higher, with Chinese import prices recording their largest monthly increase since 2008. The gain was driven by increases in consumer and capital goods prices, which outweighed declines in imported fuel and food costs. CNBC has the full story.
Apple on top: Apple overtook Nvidia to become the world’s most valuable company, reaching a market capitalization of about $4.88 trillion as investors grew more optimistic about Apple’s artificial intelligence strategy. The shift reflects changing investor sentiment as markets look beyond Nvidia’s dominance of the AI boom and assess Apple’s ability to monetize AI through its ecosystem, hardware integration and technology investments. Reuters has the full story.
