Gaza, Scary Markets and Taylor Swift Is a Billionaire: Your Saturday US Briefing

Hello from California. Israel is ratcheting up ground operations in Gaza with troops, tanks and artillery battling Hamas fighters after the most intense aerial bombardment in 22 days of war that cut off communications to the Palestinian territory. Only about 2% of needed humanitarian aid is reaching Gaza and its more than 2 million people, and that can’t be properly distributed because of fuel shortages, according to the UN. US President Joe Biden said he’d asked Israel to delay a full-scale assault on Gaza to allow more hostages held by Hamas to be freed.

Stocks had another tough week, with the S&P 500 dropping a steep 2.5%. There are plenty of places to lay the blame — instability in the Middle East along with higher interest rates, spring to mind. Still, earnings reports have been surprisingly solid: Profit came in above expectations for more than 79% of the dozens of companies that have reported so far, above a long-term average. “Macro continues to dominate the market, and the reaction to earnings misses is more negative than what normally happens,” said Rich Ross, managing director and head of technical analysis at Evercore ISI.

Meanwhile, house hunting has gotten even more challenging as rates for 30-year mortgages near 8%. Purchases of previously owned homes in September dropped to the lowest level since 2010, according to the National Association of Realtors.