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Over the long haul the two series offer a compelling study of trends in residential real estate. Here is an overlay of the two series since the 1959 inception of the Starts data and the Permits data, which began being tracked a year later.

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FINRA has released new data for margin debt, now available through October. The latest debt level is down 0.23% month-over-month.

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The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have now published their findings for October new residential housing starts. The latest reading of 1.314M was slightly below the Investing.com forecast of 1.320M and a slight increase from the previous month’s revised 1.266M.

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The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have now published their findings for October new residential building permits. The latest reading of 1.461M was an increase from 1.391M in September and above the Investing.com forecast of 1.385M.

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The price of Regular and Premium are down two and three cents each, respectively, from last week. According to GasBuddy.com, California has the highest average price for Regular at $3.93 and Louisiana has the cheapest at $2.15. The WTIC end of day spot price closed at 57.14, up 0.6% from last week and an 18% increase since the beginning of the year.

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All eight indexes on our world watch list posted gains through November 18, 2019. The top performer is France’s CAC 40 with a gain of 26.45% and in second is our own S&P 500 with a gain of 24.38%. In third is Germany’s DAXK with a gain of 20.95%. Coming in last is Hong Kong’s Hang Seng with a gain of 6.17%.

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The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Housing Market Index (HMI) is a gauge of builder opinion on the relative level of current and future single-family home sales. It is a diffusion index, which means that a reading above 50 indicates a favorable outlook on home sales; below 50 indicates a negative outlook. The latest reading of 70 is up 1 from last month.

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Month-over-month nominal sales in October increased by 0.3% (0.26% to two decimal points). Real Retail Sales, calculated with the seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index, decreased by 0.1% (0.09% to two decimal points).

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This morning’s release of the publicly available data from ECRI puts its Weekly Leading Index (WLI) at 146.2, up 0.6 from the previous week. Year-over-year the four-week moving average of the indicator is now at -0.24%, up from last week. The WLI Growth indicator is now at 0.36, up from the previous week.

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Today’s report on Industrial Production for October shows a 0.84% decrease month-over-month, which was worse than the Investing.com consensus of -0.4%. The year-over-year change is -1.13%, down from last month’s YoY increase.

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The Census Bureau’s Advance Retail Sales Report for October was released this morning. Headline sales came in at 0.26% month-over-month to one decimal and was above the Investing.com forecast of 0.2%. Core sales (ex Autos) came in at 0.20% MoM (to two decimals).

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This morning we got the latest Empire State Manufacturing Survey. The diffusion index for General Business Conditions at 2.9 was a decrease of 1.1 from the previous month’s 4.0. The Investing.com forecast was for a reading of 5.0.

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The latest price of home heating oil nationwide is $2.99. Residential heating oil supplies are 9.0% below their all-time low.

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The Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U) released yesterday morning puts the year-over-year inflation rate at 1.76%. It is below the 3.76% average since the end of the Second World War and above its 10-year moving average, now at 1.77%.

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Today’s release of the October Producer Price Index (PPI) for Final Demand came in at 0.4% month-over-month seasonally adjusted, up from -0.3% last month. It is at 1.1% year-over-year, down from 1.4% last month, on a non-seasonally adjusted basis. Core Final Demand (less food and energy) came in at 0.3% MoM, up from -0.3% the previous month and is up 1.6% YoY NSA. Investing.com MoM consensus forecasts were for 0.3% headline and 0.2% core.

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This morning’s seasonally adjusted 225K new claims, up 14K from the previous week’s 211K, was worse than the Investing.com forecast of 215K.

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The latest full set UIG for October is 2.33% while the prices-only measure is 2.08%. Current Headline CPI is now 1.76% and Core CPI is 2.31%.

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Here’s the latest on the three largest cryptocurrencies by market share: bitcoin, Ether, and Ripple.

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Here is a table showing the annualized change in Headline and Core CPI, not seasonally adjusted, for each of the past six months. Also included are the eight components of Headline CPI and a separate entry for Energy, which is a collection of sub-indexes in Housing and Transportation. We can make some inferences about how inflation is impacting our personal expenses depending on our relative exposure to the individual components.

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Let’s do some analysis of the Consumer Price Index, the best-known measure of inflation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) divides all expenditures into eight categories and assigns a relative size to each. The pie chart illustrates the components of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers, the CPI-U.

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Household debt increased by $92B (0.7%) to $13.95 trillion in Q3. There were increases in auto loans, credit card, and mortgage balances.

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the October Consumer Price Index data this morning. The year-over-year non-seasonally adjusted Headline CPI came in at 1.76%, up from 1.71% the previous month. Year-over-year Core CPI (ex Food and Energy) came in at 2.31%, down from the previous month’s 2.36% and above the Fed’s 2% PCE target.

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The price of Regular and Premium are down a penny each from last week. According to GasBuddy.com, California has the highest average price for Regular at $4.01 and Louisiana has the cheapest at $2.16. The WTIC end of day spot price closed at 56.80, up 0.5% from last Monday and a 17% increase since the beginning of the year.

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The headline number for October came in at 102.4, up 0.6 from the previous month. The index is at the 84th percentile in this series.

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All eight indexes on our world watch list posted gains through November 11, 2019. The top performer is France’s CAC 40 with a gain of 25.68% and in second is our own S&P 500 with a gain of 22.99%. In third is Germany’s DAXK with a gain of 20.87%. Coming in last is Hong Kong’s Hang Seng with a gain of 7.15%.

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Incredibly, the S&P 500 continues to reach new highs, including another today rising to 3,093.03. The index is up 0.25% from Thursday, up 0.85% from last Friday, and is up 23.38% YTD.

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This morning’s release of the publicly available data from ECRI puts its Weekly Leading Index (WLI) at 145.7, up 0.5 from the previous week. Year-over-year the four-week moving average of the indicator is now at -0.85%, up from last week. The WLI Growth indicator is now at -0.31, up from the previous week.

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The November Preliminary came in at 95.7, up 0.2 from the October Final reading. Investing.com had forecast 95.9.

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Here’s an interesting set of charts that will especially resonate with those of us who follow economic and market cycles. Imagine that five years ago you invested $10,000 in the S&P 500. How much would it be worth today, with dividends reinvested but adjusted for inflation? The purchasing power of your investment has increased to $15,5968 for an annualized real return of 9.40%.

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This update is in response to a standing request for real (inflation-adjusted) charts of the S&P 500, Dow 30, and Nasdaq Composite.