Privately‐owned housing starts in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,364,000, the Census Bureau reported. This is 12.3% above the revised July estimate of 1,215,000 and is 6.6% above the August 2018 rate of 1,279,000. Single‐family housing starts in August were at a rate of 919,000; this is 4.4% above the revised July figure of 880,000. The August rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 424,000.

Wednesday, the Dow increased 36.28 points (0.13%) to 27,147.08, the NASDAQ decreased 8.62 points (0.11%) to 8,177.39, and the S&P 500 was up 1.03 points (0.03%) at 3,006.73. The Russell 2000 closed 9.94 points (0.63%) lower at 1,568.35, and the Wilshire 5000 was down 17.97 points (0.06%) at 30,762.68.

The price of the 10-year Treasury note was up 1/32, decreasing its yield to 1.794%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond increased 27/32, bringing its yield down to 2.249%.

ON THIS DATE: In 1777, the Battle of Saratoga was won by American soldiers during the Revolutionary War. In 1876, Melville R. Bissell patented the carpet sweeper. In 1957, the U.S. detonated a 1.7 kiloton nuclear weapon in an underground tunnel at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), a 1,375 square mile research center located 65 miles north of Las Vegas. In 1970, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” premiered on CBS-TV. In 1995, a manifesto by the Unabomber, an anti-technology terrorist, was published by The New York Times and Washington Post in the hope that someone will recognize the person who, for 17 years, had been sending homemade bombs through the mail that had killed and maimed innocent people around the U.S.