Sales of new single‐family houses in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 646,000, according to estimates released jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 7% above the revised May rate of 604,000 and is 4.5% above the June 2018 estimate of 618,000.

Wednesday, the Dow fell 79.22 points (0.29%) to 27,269.97, the NASDAQ closed 70.10 points (0.85%) higher at 8,321.50, and the S&P 500 climbed 14.09 points (0.47%) to 3,019.56. The Russell 2000 was up 25.46 points (1.64%) at 1,580.42, and the Wilshire 5000 gained 197.58 points (0.64%) to close at 31,086.13.

The price of the 10-year Treasury note increased 3/32, bringing its yield down to 2.049%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond was up 31/32, decreasing its yield to 2.575%.

ON THIS DATE: In 1850, in Worcester, Massachusetts, Harvard and Yale University freshmen met in the first intercollegiate billiards match. In 1861, the Crittenden Resolution, which called for the American Civil War to be fought to preserve the Union and not for slavery, was passed by Congress. In 1866, Ulysses S. Grant was named General of the Army. He was the first American officer to hold the rank. In 1868, Congress passed an act creating the Wyoming Territory. In 1946, the U.S. detonated an atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. It was the first underwater test of the device. In 1952, Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth of the U.S. In 1978, Louise Joy Brown, the first test-tube baby, was born in Oldham, England. She had been conceived through in-vitro fertilization. In 1984, Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space. She was aboard the orbiting space station Salyut 7. In 1994, Israel and Jordan formally ended the state of war that had existed between them since 1948. In 1998, the USS Harry S. Truman was commissioned and put into service by the Navy. In 2010, WikiLeaks leaked to the public more than 90,000 internal reports involving the U.S.-led War in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.

No SURVEY SAYS this week.