Just caught up on some of the delayed economic reports from December and honestly the housing data was pretty solid. Housing starts came in at 1.404 million annualized units, which beat the 1.31 million expectation and showed month-over-month growth from November's 1.32 million. Building permits also surprised to the upside at 1.45 million versus the 1.40 million forecast, actually better than November's revised 1.39 million too. Multi-family rental housing was the standout here, continuing to outpace single-family demand.

What caught my eye is the pattern we're seeing - basically every delayed report since the government shutdown has come in better than expected. December durable goods orders also beat, printing -1.4% versus -2.0% anticipated. Ex-transportation was especially strong at +0.9%, the best monthly print since July. Non-defense ex-aircraft spending hit +0.6%, double what analysts were looking for. Shipments tripled expectations at +0.9%.

The bigger picture here feels like economic stabilization after some concerns around tariff policy earlier. We're seeing inflation cooling, jobs ticking up, trade deficits narrowing, and now housing activity picking up. Futures were already green when these December numbers hit, though the market's still wrestling with whether AI spending can actually justify valuations at current levels. Bond yields nudged higher on the data - 10-year at 4.07%, 2-year at 3.46%. Feels like we're in a holding pattern until we see whether productivity gains actually materialize from all this tech investment.