Housing-Market Funk Has Lumber Traders Expecting Rally to Fizzle
- North America has excess supply, few buyers amid rate hikes
- This year will be difficult for homebuilding, analyst says
A worker at a home under construction in the Toronto suburb of Vaughan last month.
Photographer: Cole Burston/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The chill in North America’s housing market has lumber traders saying the commodity’s recent rally may not have much more room to run.
Benchmark futures in Chicago rose as much as 5% to $423 per 1,000 board feet Thursday — the highest price in a month — heading for the longest rally in two weeks. The bounce comes after prices slumped to the lowest in more than two years last week.