Welcome to Markets Desk, your midday read on what's moving the needle.
In energy markets, crude slipped modestly on Thursday as supply disruption fears continued to ease, with West Texas Intermediate settling down roughly half a percent. Gasoline told a different story, climbing to its highest nearest-futures level in nearly two months, keeping the energy complex split heading into the weekend.
Natural gas caught a bid on the back of a tighter-than-expected storage report. The EIA confirmed inventories rose by forty-four billion cubic feet for the week ending September eleventh, coming in below the consensus estimate of forty-eight billion. That shortfall was enough to push Nymex nat-gas futures up about a third of a percent on the session.
On the housing front, Lennar, the nation's second-largest homebuilder, is sounding an alarm about immigration enforcement and its downstream effect on construction labor. The company says roughly twenty percent of its divisions are experiencing crew shortages tied directly to immigration crackdowns, a warning that carries real implications for housing supply and new build timelines across the country.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
