Housing, Drug Stores & IPOs

If the market for existing homes revs up as mortgage rates drop, will homebuilders be able to clear their excess inventories? Investors don’t seem worried, Jackie notes. … Also: The sole constituent of the S&P 500 Drug Retail industry, Walgreen Boots Alliance, has been through the wringer: booted from the DJIA, abandoned by its former CEO, and stripped of its investment-grade debt rating. But with a forward P/E battered to just 6, might all the misfortune be priced into the stock? ... And: With the IPO market moribund, private equity firms—and their investors—are caught in a logjam of immobile assets.