Good morning.
MSNBC, which is soon to separate from its parent company and rebrand as MS NOW (My Source News Opinion World), has found a way to plug a newly acquired news hole. The network announced Wednesday that it has inked a deal with the UK’s Sky News to bring its international coverage to the United States.
Comcast plans to spin off the progressive news network, as well as other cable channels including CNBC and USA, into the new, publicly traded Versant. But MSNBC and the rest will lose access to the resources and reporting of NBC News, which will remain with the parent company. The real question: When swapping in Sky and its network of over 500 journalists for NBC News, will they provide subtitles when referring to trucks as lorries, diapers as nappies and sweaters as jumpers?
*Presented by State Street Investment Management. Stock data as of market close on September 24, 2025
Feast or Fluke? US Home Sales Hit Highest in Almost Four Years
The real estate market was a feast for buyers in August, according to Commerce Department data released Wednesday. New home sales rose a dramatic and unexpected 20.5% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 800,000 units, the highest since January 2022 and leaving virtually every estimate in the dust.
But, before anyone starts licking their lips, Wells Fargo analysts cautioned: “Take the gain with a huge grain of salt.” Economists noted that, without a sustained trend, the boom may simply be the outcome of weary homebuilders countering an oversupply with discounts and incentives for buyers.
No Home Run
The roaring August demand did indeed put a serious dent in the glut of new homes on the market, with inventory falling to 490,000 units last month, the lowest this year. Why isn’t that good news for homebuilders, who, according to NAHB/Wells Fargo surveys, have been fretting about the market’s prospects? Because according to the most recent survey, many of those homebuilders are resorting to steep discounts to move properties. Some 39% reported cutting prices in September, up from 37% in August, marking the highest sustained level of discounts to lure buyers since the Covid pandemic.
New homes only represent about 14% of US home sales, and month-to-month data can be volatile and subject to revision, so it’s too soon to declare the frozen housing market thawed. “It takes three months to establish a trend for new houses sold, so it’s too early to forecast a meaningful contribution this quarter from residential investment in the GDP equation,” said LPL Financial Chief Economist Jeffrey Roach. The macroeconomic tea leaves also point in multiple directions. On the one hand, the 30-year mortgage rate, which has been edging down since July, fell to an 11-month low of 6.26% last week, according to Freddie Mac. That’s great news for buyers. On the other hand, the labor market has softened, and housing prices remain stubbornly high:
- “Mortgage financing costs remain elevated, but time has started to break the gridlock, and inventories are starting to stabilize,” said Eric Teal, Comerica Wealth Management’s chief investment officer. “However, going forward, we believe a significant decline in long rates is needed to further stimulate demand.”
- “As rates could decrease in the coming months, investors should see the residential market bottom out and become less of a drag on overall economic growth,” added LPL’s Roach. “If housing recovers, the economy will more likely skirt a recession, and if that’s the case, risk assets historically perform well in a non-recessionary rate-cutting cycle.”
Demographic Cliff: Earlier this week, Realtor.com reported that rising US family home prices appear to be a factor in falling fertility rates, which have dropped below the level needed to sustain the country’s population. What will that mean for the housing market?
SPY: The Most Traded ETF In The World Today
Launched in 1993, SPY — the SPDR S&P 500® ETF Trust — was built to provide low-cost exposure to the S&P 500. Three decades later, it remains a foundational tool for investors hunting liquidity, transparency, and broad US-equity exposure.
Now by far the most traded ETF on the planet, its average trading volume surpasses $29 billion a day.1
SPY’s scale and resilience have been proved in moments of crisis. Shortly before COVID-19 lockdown, it became the first ETF to trade more than $100 billion in a single session,2 showing that investors turn to SPY as a trusted source of liquidity during periods of volatility.
Investors rely on SPY to manage risk, provide diversification, and maintain flexibility — in all market conditions.
Yet ETFs make up just 11% of the investable market — meaning SPY still has room to grow.
Tether Poised to Join Ranks of World’s Most Valuable Private Companies
As cryptos including ether, solana and XRP slide this week, stablecoin issuer Tether is teeing up a major fundraising round, counting on investors’ continued faith in the space.
Tether is seeking up to $20 billion in a new fundraising round, Bloomberg reported this week, which would push its valuation to $500 billion and make the stablecoin issuer one of the world’s most valuable private companies. CEO Paolo Ardoino later confirmed the company is in talks with investors, saying the raise would boost Tether’s business by “several orders of magnitude,” without providing any specific numbers.
Playing Stablecoin Hockey
A $500 billion valuation would put Tether on par with OpenAI and SpaceX — not to mention dwarfing its next closest direct rival. The second-biggest stablecoin issuer behind Tether, Circle, was worth about $30 billion as of yesterday afternoon.
Stablecoins, which tie their value to another asset (typically the US dollar, like Tether does), have grown in popularity because investors and financial institutions view them as a safer entry point into the often-volatile crypto space. They’re seen as a bridge between traditional and digital assets that can make financial transactions faster and cheaper. Tether dominates the space:
- Tether has about $170 billion worth of its USDT coin in circulation, commanding about 56% of total stablecoin supply, compared with Circle’s 25%. Nearly 500 million people use USDT. Tether made a $4.9 billion profit in the most recent quarter, mainly from interest earned on US Treasuries that back its stablecoin.
- Tether’s prepping a bigger push into the US as it grows, and as the US under President Trump opens its arms to crypto. Tether appointed a new CEO to its US biz and introduced a stablecoin called USA₮, regulated under the recently enacted Genius Act. Meanwhile, the stablecoin company stopped minting a similar token in the EU as it faced a not-so-friendly regulatory environment across the pond.
Reputation Repairs: Crypto’s success hinges on investors’ trust, and this week, investors have been backing out of positions in several of the biggest coins. Ether, whose blockchain is home to most USDT, has seen its value fall about 7% this week. Stablecoins are designed to be less volatile than other crypto tokens (ahem, fartcoin), and mass adoption means maintaining that rep. However, they’ve been side-eyed in the past: Tether was fined nearly $43 million in 2021 by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for misrepresenting the backing of its token, and regulators have looked into how USDT is used in crypto crimes.
Uncle Sam Weighs Investment in Canadian Lithium Miner
New York-listed shares of Lithium Americas essentially doubled on Wednesday, rising more than 95% to close at $6. The Vancouver-based mining firm, which is developing the massive Thacker Pass Lithium Mine in northern Nevada, had the White House to thank.
That’s because the Trump administration is eyeing a US government equity stake of up to 10% in the Canadian miner, as part of a renegotiated, $2.2 billion Department of Energy loan. The cross-border deal could ultimately provide fuel for one of America’s most iconic car manufacturers.
Battery Charge
As with its newly acquired stakes in chipmaker Intel and rare earths producer MP Materials, the US sees its investment in Lithium Americas as being in the national interest. America needs more lithium, and it aims to reduce its reliance on China, which accounts for over 70% of the world’s lithium refining.
The US produces roughly 5,000 metric tons per year from a single Nevada facility operated by Albemarle, compared with China’s estimated 41,000 metric tons in 2024. Lithium Americas’ Thacker Pass mine is expected to flip that imbalance like a pancake, however, churning out 40,000 tons worth of battery-quality material annually during its first phase, starting in late 2027. That’s enough for roughly 800,000 electric cars every year, particularly great news for the mine’s second-biggest investor:
- General Motors took a 38% stake in Thacker Pass last year for $625 million and has the right to buy all the lithium from its first phase for 20 years, plus a 38% share of the next 20-year phase.
- Reuters reported that the Trump administration, as part of its negotiations, is trying to obtain a guarantee that GM will buy the material in order to shore up its investment.
Rev Up: GM has a growing use for lithium: It sold a record 21,000 electric vehicles in the US in August and is the No. 2 seller of EVs in the country behind Tesla. But executives have acknowledged EV sales will likely slow in the short to medium term as a result of US policies that will end tax credits on September 30. On the other hand, Cox Automotive analysts wrote earlier this week that they believe the US share of EVs can still rise to 25% by 2030 from under 10% this year. In which case, GM will likely be happy to mine its own business.
Extra Upside
- Good Luck: AI startup Modular obtained a $1.6 billion valuation as it plans to take on $4 trillion Nvidia’s dominance in AI computing software.
- Chauffeurless Executive: Alphabet-owned self-driving robotaxi service Waymo launched its own corporate travel service.
- Advisor Upside: Smarter Insights for Growing AUM. Stay ahead with expert takes on wealth management trends, market moves, and strategies to scale your practice. Subscribe now for free.*
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*Footnotes:
1 Bloomberg Finance, L.P., as of September 30, 2024. Average 30-day notional dollar trading volume used to determine liquidity.
2 Bloomberg Finance L.P., as of December 31, 2024.
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