Buyers came roaring back to the housing market in October, even as mortgage rates rose.  Signed contracts on existing homes, so-called pending sales, jumped 7.5% from September, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales were still 1.4% lower than October 2020, but last fall marked a cyclical high in the housing market.  Pending sales are a forward-looking indicator of sales that will close in one to two months.

Shares of the social media company Twitter are lower after news that CEO Jack Dorsey is stepping down, effective immediately. Parag Agrawal, the company’s chief technology officer, will take over as chief executive. Dorsey was serving as both the CEO of Twitter and Square, his digital payments company. He will remain a member of the board until his term expires in 2022.

Washington and Wall Street are optimistic that Congress can pass a bill to fund the government and avert a partial shutdown before a Friday deadline.  Democrats and Republicans appeared to be coalescing around a bill to fund the government through late January or early February.  A lapse in government funding can lead to furloughs of federal workers and a lapse in some government services.