Homebuyers back out

Home-purchase contracts in the US were canceled at a record rate, with about 58,000 agreements falling through last month. That's equivalent to 15.3% of homes that went under contract and the highest cancellation rate for a July in data going back to 2017.

It's not just that the housing market's expensive, with elevated mortgage rates and home prices that have soared 50% since early 2020. Buyers are also pulling back more than usual because of uncertainty over the wavering US economy, as inflation begins to rise again and the labor market slows. Plus, with more listings to choose from in many parts of the country, there's less urgency.

"Buyers are having economic nausea—they're feeling queasy about the market," said Jeremy Caleb Johnson, an associate broker with Long & Foster in Virginia Beach. "They want to buy a house, but sometimes it's too overwhelming when they start to focus on all the moving parts and all the costs involved. Sometimes it's easier for them to cancel and get some fresh air and breathe." —David E. Rovella

What You Need to Know Today

As concern mounts among observers of Russia that talk of summits, security guarantees and ceasefires amounts to much less than meets the eye, Vladimir Putin's military added heft to the contention that he's not interested in peace.

Russia on Thursday attacked a factory in western Ukraine owned by American company Flex Ltd., causing a massive fire and wounding at least 19 people, part of one of the largest strikes on Ukraine in weeks. Following a meeting in Alaska with Donald Trump, and the US president's renewed embrace of Kremlin terms for a cessation of hostilities, Putin resumed strikes deep into Ukrainian territory.

Smoke billows from a Russian missile strike on a major American electronics manufacturer in western Ukraine. Photograph: Bloomberg

Granular details have been hard to come by in the handful of deals Trump has touted since launching his trade war. But now, the US agreement with the European Union may be coming into focus. A joint statement issued Thursday advances the preliminary accord announced a month ago by including specific benchmarks for the EU to secure its promised sectoral tariff discounts on cars, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. There also are new commitments to cooperate on economic security matters, food standards and digital trade.

Warburg Pincus is said to have generated almost $10 billion in returned capital for investors this year, having set a firm-wide record for realizations in the first six months alone. The private equity group has been offloading assets to a mix of strategic and sponsor buyers.

These milestones are significant for Warburg at a time when private equity remains under intense pressure to return money to investors, while also facing a more challenging market for selling at what they consider to be the right price. In this environment, an increasing number of firms have been getting creative with their hard-to-sell assets.

Walmart shares fell after its profits missed expectations for the first time in three years, overshadowing higher sales. The world's largest retailer cited a rise in insurance claims, legal charges and restructuring costs as factors weighing it down. Claims, which include general liability and workers' compensation expenses, particularly dragged down earnings as the costs of settling or going to court have risen.

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The US Defense Department is seeking to buy cobalt for its strategic stockpiles for the first time in decades, a major intervention in the market and the latest move to bolster domestic supplies of critical metals. Cobalt-based alloys are used in munitions and jet engines while the metal is also critical for making magnets used in flaps, landing gear and flight-control surfaces on airplanes.

The Defense Logistics Agency is seeking offers for up to 7,500 tons of cobalt over the next five years in a contract worth up to $500 million. It's the first time the DLA has sought to buy cobalt since 1990. In recent years, securing supply chains for metals like cobalt has become a US political priority as officials seek to reduce reliance on China. Beijing dominates processing of cobalt and other battery metals and has built up a significant state stockpile of its own.

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Washington DC Knows It's Just Trump's Punching Bag

Residents and local officials are under no illusion that Trump's militarization of the nation's capital has nothing to do with crime.

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What You'll Need to Know Tomorrow

Health

Supreme Court Lets Trump Cut Hundreds of Millions in Medical Research Grants

Litigation

Trump's Gets $464 Million Fraud Penalty Tossed, But Verdict Is Upheld

Markets

Goldman Traders Say It's Time to Buy the Dip in Momentum Stocks

Trump 2.0

Alina Habba Blocked From Handling New Jersey Cases in Rebuke to Trump

India Edition

Spurned by Trump, Modi Springs Into Action

Anthropic in Talks to Raise Up to $10 Billion in New Funding

Game On

Why "Silksong" Took Seven Years to Make

For Your Commute

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Bloomberg Power Players: Join us in New York on Sept. 4. Set against the backdrop of the US Open Tennis Championships, we'll bring together influential voices from the business of sports to identify the next wave of disruption that could hit this multitrillion-dollar global industry. Learn more.