Just caught the December housing data and it's actually looking pretty solid. Starts came in at 1.404 million when everyone was expecting 1.31 million, and building permits also beat the call at 1.45 million. Month-over-month growth too, which is nice to see.

What's interesting is the multi-family housing is where the real demand is showing up. Single-family stuff seems to be cooling a bit by comparison. Anyway, after some of the concerns we had last year around tariff policy, it's refreshing to see housing pick up some momentum.

Durable goods also surprised to the upside this morning - December orders came in at -1.4% when they were calling for -2.0%. Ex-transportation numbers were even better at +0.9%. Shipments basically tripled expectations.

So we're getting economic stabilization across the board right now. Inflation cooling, jobs holding up, and now housing and orders both beating. That said, the AI narrative is still what's really driving things. Until we see actual productivity gains to justify all the spending, I think people are going to stay a bit cautious at these levels. Pre-market futures are up on it all, but nothing crazy.

Bond yields ticked up on the housing data - 10-year at 4.07%, 2-year at 3.46%. Dow up 23, S&P 500 up 13, Nasdaq up 63. Small caps actually dipped slightly. Overall, December data is giving us reasons to be optimistic, but I'm not getting too carried away just yet.