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Week in Review

This was a quieter, if not exactly quiet, week for economic news and data releases that still delivered updates on inflation, some housing stats, and more. Given the roller coaster oil prices have taken over the past few months, “quieter” is just fine by us.

Monday

Oil Stuff

Oil prices have plunged back below $70/barrel as traffic picks up through the Strait of Hormuz. Both gas and diesel prices are falling as a result, though not as quickly as some people, like the president, would like.

TSA Checkpoint Travel Numbers

Air travel has slipped below year-ago levels over the past week. This could be a little quirk, or it could be would-be travelers tapping out because of higher prices. Whether or not we get a big bounce over the July 4^th weekend will be telling.

Tuesday

Congress Passes Huge Housing Bill, Trump Cancels Signing

Congress passed the 21^st Century Road to Housing Act by a large and bipartisan 358-32 vote on Tuesday morning. Then, on Wednesday morning, President Trump abruptly canceled the signing ceremony and now says he won’t sign it unless Congress passes the Save Act. That seems unlikely, but we’re willing to bet that won’t matter: President Trump probably won’t veto this, so it will become law one way or another.

There’s a lot of really good stuff in this bill, and even the limit on large investors aren’t quite as bad as it could be. We’ll try to cover this in its own post, but here’s a rundown for anyone interested.

DOE Announces American Nuclear Supply Chain Loans

The Department of Energy issued $17.5 billion in conditional loans to finance 10 AP1000 nuclear reactors across the U.S. Specifically, these loans will fund long-lead time components, like containment vessels and turbines, that take years to get and can really slow down projects.

There’s a long way to go between these loans and functional reactors—they haven’t even identified the specific projects that will be receiving them—but it’s an exciting program.

Quieter Week in Review