Home Sales Keep Rising Despite High Mortgage Rate

• Sales of existing homes rose for a third month in November, posting their biggest year-over-year acceleration since 2021.

• Despite the uptick, sales are on track to end the year at the lowest since 1995, thanks to high mortgage rates.

• The increase in sales suggests buyers are getting used to the idea of paying rates in the high 6% range, compared to 3%- 4% before the pandemic.

• Homebuyers may not like the new normal of mortgage rates in the high 6% range, but they're getting used to it.

The UAW Quietly Reached A Deal With Rivian That Could Speed Pp EV-industry Unionization

Freshly charged… The United Auto Workers could be uniting some more autoworkers soon. The 400K-member union is said to have struck a deal with EV-maker RivianRIVN $13.00 (0.00%) that’d make unionizing the company’s workforce less difficult. FYI: the NLRB is investigating Rivian over allegations of union busting. Bloomberg reported that Rivian agreed to take a neutral stance in future organization efforts, as long as they happen once the company reaches profitability.

• Could be a minute: Rivian has never reported a quarterly adjusted profit. Last quarter, the electric SUV and truck maker lost $39K per car sold (up about $7K from the previous q). In October, it slashed its annual production target by 10K vehicles.

• Greasing the wheel: The neutrality agreement is said to have helped Rivian secure a conditional $6.6B loan from the US gov’t to build a new factory in Georgia.

• Musk be watching: After the UAW’s big contract win, Tesla boosted its factory pay in an apparent effort to combat union wage arguments.

US stocks turn early gains into losses

Major US stock indexes started the session off well, but the wheels fell off the rally as the day progressed.

The S&P 500 ended virtually flat, while the Nasdaq 100 and Russell 2000 each gave back 0.5% on Thursday.

Bad breadth continues, with the S&P 500’s advance-decline line negative for the 14th consecutive session.

Utilities, financials, and tech were the S&P 500 sector ETFs that managed to gain; real estate and materials paced the losses.

Tech’s modest gain came despite a retreat in the VanEck Semiconductor ETF SMH $238.00 (-1.27%), due in large part to Micron MU $86.21 (-16.18%)’s post-earnings plunge.

High-flying quantum computing stocks like D-Wave Quantum QBTS $5.99 (-28.91%), Rigetti Computing RGTI $6.77 (-30.17%), and Quantum Computing QUBT $14.01 (-41.05%) saw a massive reversal of much of their recent gains.

Homebuilders slumped, with Lennar LEN $138.20 (-5.20%) getting whacked on poor first-quarter guidance that points to continued margin pressure.

Darden Restaurants DRI $185.00 (14.72%) did great after reporting earnings and boosting its outlook; on the other side of the carb spectrum, Lamb WestonLW $62.34 (-20.10%) cratered in the wake of a poor one.

• FedEx to spin off its freight trucking business.

• Bluesky now has a mentions tab in your notifications area.

• Malls are using new restaurants to draw consumers.

• Nike stock pops 9% as its new CEO starts with an earnings beat.

Netflix spends as much on content overseas as it does in North America.