Privately-owned housing starts in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,215,000. This is 8.3% above the revised May estimate of 1,122,000 and is 2.1% above the June 2016 rate of 1,190,000. Single-family housing starts in June were at a rate of 849,000; this is 6.3% above the revised May figure of 799,000. The June rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 359,000.

Wednesday, the Dow was up 66.02 points (0.31%) at 21,640.75, the NASDAQ gained 40.74 points (0.64%) to finish at 6,385.04, and the S&P 500 increased 13.22 points (0.54%) to 2,473.83. The Russell 2000 climbed 14.16 points (0.99%) to 1,441.77, and the Wilshire 5000 closed 140.97 points (0.55%) higher at 25,728.68.

The price of the 10-year Treasury note was down 3/32, increasing its yield to 2.269%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond was up 1/32, decreasing its yield to 2.849%.

ON THIS DATE: In 1861, the Congress of the Confederate States began holding sessions in Richmond, Virginia. In 1881, Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull, a fugitive since the Battle of the Little Big Horn, surrendered to federal troops. In 1917, the draft lottery in World War I began. In 1942, the first detachment of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, (WACS) began basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. In 1944, an attempt by a group of German officials to assassinate Adolf Hitler failed. The bomb exploded at Hitler’s Rastenburg headquarters. Hitler was only wounded. In 1944, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt was nominated for an unprecedented fourth term of office at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. became the first men to walk on the moon. In 1976, America’s Viking I robot spacecraft made a successful landing on Mars.