The overall value of private-equity-backed deals is down over 50% in 2023 versus the prior period, at a three-year low of about $256.7 billion. But the number of transactions has fallen only 4% to 6,458. That is the third-highest year-to-date tally in data going back more than 30 years, showing a resurgence of smaller deals.

Home prices posted their first year-over-year price decline in 11 years in April, as higher mortgage rates made home purchases more expensive for buyers.

The Cboe Volatility Index, or the VIX, has fallen to around 14, near the lowest levels since February 2020.

A survey of 4,500 companies’ return-to-office policies found that nearly 300 require employees to come in on specific days. Of those, just under a quarter ask employees to come in on Mondays, with many more stipulating staff be in the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Just 7% tell employees to come in on Fridays.

The S&P 500 has risen 14% this year, beating an 8.5% advance by the MSCI All Country World ex USA Index, which tracks developed and emerging-market stocks.

Compensation for the median worker at 278 companies in the S&P 500 index was higher in 2022 than in the year before. About 100 of the companies said their median worker’s pay rose 10% or more, roughly the same number as in 2021.

Around 43 million people in the U.S., some 17% of the adult population, have federal student debt. Out of those borrowers, roughly 26.6 million—or about 10% of the adult population—had loans in forbearance as of the first quarter. This was thanks to the federal government’s suspension of payments and interest accrual starting in March 2020 and that pause is ending August 30.

Startups in the U.S. raised $37 billion in the first quarter of this year, down 55% from the first three months of last year.

Investors are bracing for a flood of more than $1 trillion of Treasury bills in the wake of the debt-ceiling fight, potentially sparking a new bout of volatility in financial markets by overwhelming buyers, jolting markets and raising short-term borrowing costs.

Compared with the S&P 500 traditional index’s 11% gain, the equally weighted version has added 1.1%. That is the largest-ever outperformance by the S&P 500 on a year-to-date basis based on data starting in 1990.