The nation’s homebuilders aren’t seeing any relief from supply chain issues that have slowed construction recently, but high buyer demand appears to be making up for it.  Builder confidence in the single-family home construction market rose 4 points to 80 in October on the National Association of Home Builders Housing Market Index. That is still down from 85 in October 2020 and from the record high 90 in November of last year. Anything above 50 is considered positive.

China's GDP is growing at the slowest pace in a year as a massive energy crunch, shipping disruptions and a deepening property crisis take their toll on the world's second largest economy.  The Chinese economy expanded by just 4.9% in the third quarter, compared with the same period a year earlier. That's much slower than the 7.9% increase China registered in the second quarter. It's also the weakest rate of growth since last year's July-to-September period, when GDP also grew 4.9%.

The first U.S. bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund will start trading today, a milestone for the cryptocurrency industry.  The long-awaited ProShares ETF will offer exposure to bitcoin futures contracts — agreements to buy or sell the asset later for an agreed-upon price — rather than bitcoin itself.  Buyer beware.