Key Summary

NAR reported August pending home sales up 0.3% from the prior month, well below the 2% consensus, and down 4.7% from a year earlier. The undershoot reinforces the case that higher mortgage rates are still throttling housing demand, a channel that typically pulls UST yields and the dollar lower on rate-cut expectations while simultaneously signaling weaker consumption for cyclical equities and high-beta assets such as BTC and ETH. Chief economist Lawrence Yun noted buyers kept signing contracts despite rising mortgage rates but that activity remains below last year's level; the next check is whether mortgage rates ease enough to lift September contract signings, which would separate a rate-driven soft patch from broader demand deterioration.