Economic reports are in a lull mid-month. Tuesday's report on the housing market showed permits at 1.275 million units in May, a high mark for the U.S. housing market since the 2007 bubble burst. 
 

At the regional level, the Tall Timber Group estimate for contracting during the first six months of 2015 is above $1.4 billion, a pace that should put non-residential construction above $3 billion for the full year. 

The big story of the week has been the announcement that Shell closed on more than 1,000 acres of the Horsehead Corp. site and surrounding parcels. This was something of a non-story, however, since Shell had essentially committed to these purchases previously and the closing doesn't mean a final investment decision is necessarily more imminent. The more important story was the report from several people familiar with the project that the DEP had approved the permits for the cracker. Shell has maintained from the first announcement of the proposed cracker that obtaining the needed permits would be a significant final hurdle. Even if the permits are about to be issued, however, Shell maintains that the evaluation process is still ongoing.

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