Following a week in which tamer inflation data buoyed stocks, equities are subdued to start the week. Gold and silver are modestly lower, while crude oil is flat along with the dollar. Treasuries are selling off.
The movie business hasn’t had much to celebrate lately, but The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) scored a hit over the weekend. The movie “Inside Out 2” racked up $155 million in ticket sales over the weekend, the second-biggest debut of a film from Disney’s Pixar studio in its 29-year history. Pixar reportedly laid off 14% of its workforce recently in a bid to cut costs.
The Walt Disney Co. (DIS)
Add surging INSURANCE costs to the long list of headaches for the housing market. From Florida to California, many insurers are raising homeowners insurance premiums or not writing new policies at all. That includes the master homeowners association policies that condo owners pay for through monthly dues, according to the Wall Street Journal. That’s driving up the cost of ownership for existing homeowners – and deterring some buyers from entering the market.
Speaking of housing, China’s real estate slump worsened in May. New home prices dropped the most since October 2014 in May, while existing home prices fell the most since China started tracking in 2011. Property investment sank 10.1% from a year earlier in the first five months of 2024, with property sales tanking 20.3%.
