*as of 10/20; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

Important housing market data dropped yesterday, starting with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) report on pending home sales, which showed a 7.3% monthly decline and an 11.3% year-over-year drop. The total number of homes in contract fell to their lowest level since at least 2001. Meanwhile, housing construction data showed a bigger-than-expected slowdown in activity, with housing starts falling 5.2% and building permits 0.2%, and single-family building permits dropping 4%.

➨ TAKEAWAY: Expectations were already low for the first month of data after mortgage rates rose rapidly to above 7%, but the slowdown was even more pronounced than experts thought. The decline in construction activity is expected to continue, with home builder confidence plummeting to a 14-year low, as builders have had to enact widespread price cuts to entice buyers. With supply set to drop in the medium-term, there won’t be the downward price pressure needed to bring buyers back to the table. It is going to take mortgage rates falling to do so, something that may not happen for a couple of years, at least.

In the newest episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin talks with Get Access CEO Michael Goodbody about the evolution of private markets, democratizing access to transformational companies, and investing alongside A-list celebrities and athletes.

📉 Fintech funding falls: Global venture funding for fintech startups fell 28.4% quarterly and 21.4% year over year in Q3, while total deal count dropped nearly 31% to a multi-year low. We covered the sector and its major private companies in our latest Pre-IPO investor briefing, which is now available to watch.

🤖 Tenstorrent fundraise: The AI chipmaker closed a $1.5 billion round at a $6.2 billion valuation, more than double its $2.6 billion valuation from late 2024. This raise is the latest successful mega round in the AI hardware sector, following those from Cerebras, Etched, and SambaNova earlier this year.

🏢 Mall traffic increasing: The shopping mall sector continued its improbable comeback, with each major category experiencing solid year-over-year gains last month. Open-air centers led with a 5.6% increase in foot traffic, followed by indoor malls at 5.5% and outlet centers at 4.1%.

🪙 JPM Coin: Wall Street bank JPMorgan Chase is bringing its private token, JPM Coin, to the public Ethereum blockchain in order to give institutional clients 24/7 settlement capabilities. For those select clients, JPM Coin is an upgrade over traditional wire transfers.

⚽ Messi card record: Soccer legend Lionel Messi’s “Final Farewell” pack became the top-selling release ever for Topps Now, and unlocked the first ever 1 of 1 White OpalFractor Chrome card. The popularity of the set shows Messi’s continued stature in the collecting world.

🎨 Hilma af Klint painting: An artwork from the pioneering Swedish artist who has seen her profile grow in the past decade is being auctioned in Stockholm with a pre-sale estimate of $600,000 to $800,000, which would set a new artist’s record. Expect it to go for more, though, as her works are tightly controlled by her estate and rarely come up for sale.

In a relatively stable week for the crypto market, the top performer in the top-100 by market cap was privacy coin Monero, which has quietly doubled in price since February. It has been overshadowed in the privacy coin world by rival Zcash, which itself was up nearly 10% yesterday and has quadrupled in price over the past year. The main difference between the two is that Monero only allows private transactions whereas Zcash gives users the option to choose between private and public. There does not appear to be a clear catalyst for Monero’s strong week, but it is worth noting that since we first wrote about the coin and the growing demand for privacy coins in 2024, it has more than tripled in price.