"Serve Your Country": Uncle Sam Seeks Investment Bankers For 'Economic Defense Unit'

Housing Starts Collapse Near COVID Lows As Homebuilder Confidence Crashes Following the collapse of Homebuilder confidence (due to mortgage rates, war, and immigration apparently) and the still vast gap down to homebuyer confidence... ...it should be no surprise that homebuilders are unwilling to Start building (Housing Starts -5.2% MoM in September and August revised down to a 5.9% MoM plunge) or even more forward looking, get Permits ( -0.2% MoM)... On a SAAR basis, Starts are back near post-COVID lows while Permits are holding near the lows of a four year range... Starts...

Democrats Are Not In Good Shape For The Midterms The conventional wisdom heading into 2026 was simple enough: an unpopular president, a restless electorate, and history's gravitational pull toward the opposition party would deliver the House back to Democrats. CNN's Harry Enten spent this week throwing cold water on that narrative — and the data he brought to the table should give Democrats serious pause. Start with the map. Democrats were counting on Virginia’s new map to give them four more solid seats heading into the midterms, but the Virginia Supreme Court...

Novorossiysk Restarts Oil Loadings At Reduced Capacity After Drone Strike By Julianne Geiger of OilPrice Russia has restarted limited oil loadings at its Black Sea port of Novorossiysk after a drone attack earlier this week forced a full suspension. Operations at the Sheskharis terminal resumed late Thursday, but only one berth is currently active. A single cargo of roughly 80,000 tons is expected to depart, well below the terminal's normal capacity of about 700,000 barrels per day. The restart comes after the Monday strike that caused fires at a fuel terminal and damaged...