Business activity is growing, apartment construction lifted housing starts, and corporate earnings remain healthy—but each report comes with an important qualification.
Three reports released this week produced encouraging headlines, but the details were more mixed. Business activity expanded, overall housing construction rose sharply, and several major companies reported solid earnings.
The common thread is that investors and consumers still have reasons to remain cautious. The improvement in services may have received a temporary lift from summer spending and the FIFA World Cup, the housing increase came almost entirely from multifamily construction, and investors are questioning whether enormous artificial-intelligence investments will eventually generate adequate returns.
| Report | Headline result | What the details show | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchasing Managers’ Index | Business activity continued to expand. | Services rose to 53.6, helped partly by summer activity, Independence Day spending and the FIFA World Cup. Manufacturing remained in expansion but slipped slightly to 53.8. | The economy is still growing, but some of the services improvement may be temporary rather than the beginning of a broader acceleration. |
| Housing construction | Total housing starts jumped 19%. | Single-family construction slipped 0.2%, while construction in buildings with five or more units surged to an annual rate of 513,000. | The report is better news for future apartment supply than for first-time buyers looking for newly built homes. |
| Corporate earnings | Many companies reported generally solid revenue and profits. | Investors focused less on the completed quarter and more on rising AI spending, uncertain future returns and higher energy prices related to the conflict involving Iran. | Companies are still making money, but Wall Street now expects clearer evidence that massive AI investments will produce equally large returns. |
The reports do not point to an economy in immediate trouble. They show continued growth, low layoffs, profitable businesses and additional housing construction. But they also do not show a broad boom. Single-family housing remains weak, some business growth may be event-driven, and geopolitical risks could raise energy costs and inflation.
For my daughter and me, these reports do not prove that waiting another year to make a housing move is the right decision. However, nothing in today’s data suggests that we should regret waiting.
Willie and I appreciate every visitor to Good Eye Mike. Thank you for reading.
Official Resources
Intel Investor Relations (Quarterly Earnings)
https://www.intc.com/
U.S. Census Bureau – New Residential Construction (Housing Starts)
https://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/
S&P Global – U.S. Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI)
https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/mi/products/pmi.html
Alphabet Investor Relations (Quarterly Earnings)
https://abc.xyz/investor/