“The last four and a half years have been carefree, halcyon times for investors. That doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way. I’ll give Warren Buffett the last word, as I often do: “It’s only when the tide goes out that you find out who’s been swimming naked.” Pollyannas take note: the tide cannot come in forever.”
― Howard Marks

1. U.S. Existing Home Sales Fell for a Fourth Straight Month in May — contract closings decreased 0.9% from the prior month to an annualized 5.8 million, according to data out Tuesday from the National Association of Realtors. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 5.73 million rate in May. Home prices will likely remain elevated for some time as builders struggle to replace the deficit in existing homes with new builds. They cite high materials prices, supply shortages and a limited number of skilled workers as ongoing challenges. The median selling price rose 23.6% from a year ago to a record $350,300 in May.
2. Mideast Joins Bitcoin Craze With First Dubai Crypto Listing — the Canadian fund was the first of its type to be listed on a major exchange, in Toronto last year. The intent of the Dubai listing is to get trading at all hours around the globe. Dubai-based Dalma Capital Management Ltd. is the joint lead arranger for the offering. The Bitcoin Fund invests in long-term holdings of Bitcoin as a safer alternative to direct investments in the cryptocurrency, according to its prospectus. The fund does not speculate with regard to short-term changes in Bitcoin prices.
3. Fauci Calls Delta Variant the “Greatest Threat” to Defeating Coronavirus — Delta, first identified in India, is now about 20.6% of new U.S. cases and is expected to become the dominant strain, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Delta is estimated to be 60% more transmissible than the Alpha variant first identified in the U.K. Fauci said studies have shown that the Pfizer – BioNTech vaccine is 88% effective against the Delta variant two weeks after the second dose, and he urged Americans to get fully vaccinated to “crush the outbreak.”
4. Biden, Senators Agree to Roughly $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan — President Biden and a group of centrist senators agreed to a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure plan, securing a long-sought bipartisan deal on overhauling the nation’s transportation, water and broadband infrastructure that lawmakers and the White House will now attempt to shepherd through a closely-divided Capitol Hill. Drafts of the agreement had called for $579 billion of spending above expected federal levels, totaling $973 billion over five years and $1.2 trillion if continued over eight. The lawmakers had discussed financing the package with a mix of public-private partnerships, existing federal funds, and revenue collected from enhanced enforcement at the Internal Revenue Service.
5. Hong Kong will ban all passenger flights from the United Kingdom starting July 1, 2021 — the government classified the U.K. as an “extremely high risk,” citing the rebound of the cases in the U.K. and the “widespread Delta variant virus strain there,” the Associated Press reported. People who have spent more than two hours in the U.K. will be prohibited from boarding passenger flights to Hong Kong. Hong Kong has one of the world’s strictest quarantine requirements for incoming passengers, and had recently increased quarantines for travelers from the U.K. to three weeks in hotel quarantine, The Financial Times reported. The Delta variant now makes up 99% of new cases in the U.K.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:

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