Housing Starts (Aug MM) -2.6% (Prev. -9.0%)

A shallower decline following a much steeper prior-month fall is the standard profile for this series: mean reversion within a trend, rather than a turn in the trend itself. The distinction worth drawing is between single-family and multi-family, which typically move on different drivers, with single-family tracking mortgage rates and builder sentiment and multi-family running on its own financing and pipeline cycle. Transmission on these prints has tended to run through homebuilder equities and building-products names first, with rates markets largely looking through housing data unless it corroborates the broader inflation and labour narrative. The follow-ons are the permits breakdown, any revision to the prior month, and whether builder confidence surveys point the same way. As a second-tier release, the print is a trend input rather than a catalyst.