Bonds & Stocks
US equity futures and Treasuries held onto gains after an unexpected jump in new home construction as investors wagered upcoming data will back the case for Federal Reserve easing. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 pared an early advance to 0.1%, after the tech-heavy index hit a record Monday for the second consecutive session. Contracts on the S&P 500 added 0.2%, with the underlying index approaching an all-time peak.
Economy
US new-home construction unexpectedly surged in November to a sixmonth high, benefiting from a dearth of existing houses on the market and suggesting the crunch in residential real estate is easing. Residential starts increased 14.8% last month to a 1.56 million annualized rate, government data showed Tuesday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 1.36 million pace.
World
Russia’s seaborne crude exports climbed again on a four-week average basis, despite a dip in weekly flows driven by a brief pause in shipments from the Baltic port of Primorsk. About 3.28 million barrels a day of crude were shipped from Russian ports in the four weeks to Dec. 17, tanker-tracking data monitored by Bloomberg show. That was up by 80,000 barrels a day from the revised figure for the period to Dec. 10.