The Week Ahead - 8/2/26
A look at the upcoming week for the US economy and equities — covering key drivers including earnings, positioning, breadth, valuations, sentiment, seasonality, interest rates, and the Fed.
https://t.co/b6bJUqpHsd
U.S. PENDING HOME SALES HIT 5-MONTH LOW
U.S. pending home sales fell to a five-month low as elevated mortgage rates kept buyers on the sidelines.
Pending sales dropped 3.7% W/W and 1.9% Y/Y to 311,150, the lowest level in over five months.
The average 30-year mortgage rate rose to 6.69%, while mortgage purchase applications fell 4% W/W.
Despite weaker demand, the median home sale price increased 2.9% Y/Y to $406,362.
BREAKING: Hedge funds bought +$4.8 billion of US equities last week, the 2nd-largest weekly purchase since 2008.
As a % of the S&P 500’s market cap, this was the 24th-largest purchase on record.
At the same time, institutional investors sold -$3.8 billion, snapping a streak of 4 consecutive weekly purchases.
This lowers the 4-week average of institutional purchases to +$3.9 billion.
Meanwhile, retail investors recorded modest sales of -$200 million, bringing their 4-week down to +$600 million.
Hedge funds are piling back into US stocks.
Tesla $TSLA just posted this:
“Terafab will be built in Grimes County, Texas”
“Both Tesla & SpaceX will need far more chips than current & future global production can supply.
This is why we're building the largest chip manufacturing facility ever, with the goal of producing over 1 terawatt of compute per year”