*as of 8/5; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, GOLD

The U.S. office sector is continuing its comeback, with leasing demand hitting its highest level in seven years, posting a net absorption of 16.9 million square feet - meaning that more tenants are leasing space than exiting it. Class A buildings accounted for 87% of the net absorption gains, with top quality office space seeing its vacancy rates drop 70 basis points. While average asking rents fell slightly by 0.2% in the quarter, they are still up 2.2% year-over-year.

➨ TAKEAWAY: The office sector is rebounding slowly but surely, as 89% of employers are now requiring at least three days of in-office attendance per week, up from 78% last year. Two-thirds of companies are planning to keep or grow their office footprint in the next three years. Additionally, a record-low amount of office space is currently under construction, which will continue to shift the supply-demand balance back towards landlords.

Vincent's Slava Rubin is joined by Sacra's Jan-Erik Asplund to explore the recent IPO of SpaceX, its market performance, and the potential upcoming IPOs of major AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Databricks.

📊 ADP employment report: Private sector job growth cooled significantly last month, with 44,000 jobs added compared to 95,000 in June and the 75,000 originally forecast for July. This slowdown could be a signal of a slowing labor market, with a fuller picture coming Friday with the official U.S. jobs report.

🚀 VC funding records: There were 14 funding rounds of a billion dollars or more last month, a new all-time record, as overall funding doubled year-over-year to $65 billion. The biggest fundraises of the month came from Blue Origin, Safe Superintelligence, and Moonshot AI.

🏡 Listing prices continue decline: The median U.S. housing listing price fell for the ninth straight month and is now down 2.4% year-over-year. When adjusted for price per square foot, though, prices are slightly up in the Midwest and Northeast and down in the South and West.

💵 Discounted private credit stakes: A number of publicly traded private credit vehicles, such as Blue Owl’s Capital Corp (NYSE: OBDC), are currently trading at sharp discounts to their net asset values (NAV), as the S&P’s BDC Index is down 21.4% this year. This drawdown offers investors the ability to buy into discounted positions, if they are willing to assume the risk that the market could keep falling.

🪙 IRS crypto crackdown: Only half of U.S. taxpayers with crypto holdings have been reporting their transactions to the IRS, but the new rules that have formalized tax reporting for digital asset brokers and taxpayers is making it easier for the IRS to track.

⚽ “Hand of God” ball: The game-used ball from Diego Maradona’s legendary 1986 World Cup goal is coming for auction later this month at Heritage, and could become the most expensive piece of soccer memorabilia ever.

Last week, Google rolled out a new feature that allowed users to create AI-generated images on Google Earth, a move that was widely criticized for encouraging the creation of deceptive content. The company quickly withdrew the feature, but it begged the question of why it was introduced in the first place, as there doesn’t seem to be much utility in something that can be used to fabricate satellite photos. With the advent of AI-generated images, the Internet has already become a place where no photo or video can be initially trusted, and major tech companies don’t seem to be concerned enough about the lack of trust. Google, which built its reputation on providing quality information to users, should know this better than others.