A home is seen for sale on April 24, 2025 in Austin, Texas. Brandon Bell | Getty ImagesMortgage rates didn’t move much last week, but homebuyers continued to pull back amid concerns over the broader economy.Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home dropped 4% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Volume was just 3% higher than the same week one year ago, even though interest rates last year were considerably higher.The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances, $806,500 or less, decreased to 6.89%…
Author: usaeverydaylife
Attendees arrive at the auditorium of the CHI Health Center during the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, US, on Saturday, May 6, 2023. David Williams | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesFor decades, Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting — Warren Buffett’s “Woodstock for Capitalists” — has attracted foreign investors traveling to Omaha, Nebraska, sometimes from thousands of miles away. This year, their international trip has a new wrinkle to it.Xin Jin, a Chinese investor in Guangzhou, wanted to pay his second visit to Omaha this May but international travel in the current political climate worried him. In 2012, he poured half his assets…
Chuck Smith monitors the manufacturing process of the series 6 solar panels during a tour of a First Solar plant in Walbridge, Ohio, on Oct. 6, 2021.Dane Rhys | ReutersFirst Solar shares plunged Wednesday, after CEO Mark Widmar said the scale and depth of President Donald Trump’s tariffs were unexpected and pose a “significant economic headwind” to the company’s manufacturing facilities.Widmar said the implementation of new trade policies by Trump was viewed by First Solar as a possibility, but the tariffs imposed by the president earlier this month have “introduced significant challenges to 2025 that were not known at the…
GE HealthCare reported better-than-expected first-quarter results on Wednesday, but the company slashed its annual forecast to account for the impact of President Donald Trump’s far-reaching reciprocal tariff policy.Shares of GE HealthCare were up 3% Wednesday.Here’s how the company did:Earnings per share: $1.01 adjusted vs. 91 cents expected by LSEG.Revenue: $4.78 billion vs. $4.66 billion expected by LSEG.Revenue increased 3% year over year from $4.65 billion. GE HealthCare reported net income of $564 million, or $1.23 per share, up from $374 million, or 81 cents per share, during the same period last year.For its full year, GE HealthCare said it expects to…
Britain’s military carried out a joint operation with U.S. forces against the Houthi militia in Yemen, officials said on Wednesday, in the first such strike since President Trump re-entered the White House and stepped up attacks on the Iran-backed group.There was no immediate comment from the American military about the operation, which the British Defense Ministry said early Wednesday was carried out overnight “to degrade Houthi capabilities and prevent further attacks against U.K. and international shipping.”Typhoon jets using precision guided bombs took part in the mission, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the strike took place “after dark”…
Goldman Sachs is sticking with its buy rating for Brinker International , despite investors dumping the stock after its fiscal third-quarter earnings report on Tuesday. Brinker International, which owns chains such as Chili’s and Maggiano’s Little Italy, reported fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.66 per share on revenue of $1.43 billion. This exceeded the profit of $2.56 per share on revenue of $1.38 billion that analysts polled by FactSet had expected. The company also raised its full-year revenue guidance versus its previous outlook. However, investors still sent the stock down 15% on Tuesday, as some viewed the growth as unsustainable.…
The stock market is starting to act like the worst of the tariff disputes is over, but investors may want to wait to see if the economy avoids recession before jumping back on the bull market bandwagon, according to Goldman Sachs. The S & P 500 has risen for six straight trading sessions and is now down less than 1% in April, erasing almost all its losses from immediately after the “Liberation Day” tariff rollout. From the March 31 close to the April 7 intraday low, the S & P 500 was briefly down 13.8% in less than five trading days.…
Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap Inc., speaks onstage during the Snap Partner Summit 2023 at Barker Hangar on April 19, 2023 in Santa Monica, California. Joe Scarnici | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty ImagesSnap shares fell more than 15% Wednesday after the social media company withheld second-quarter guidance due to the uncertain macroeconomic environment.”While our topline revenue has continued to grow, we have experienced headwinds to start the current quarter, and we believe it is prudent to continue to balance our level of investment with realized revenue growth,” the company said Tuesday, adding that macro conditions could impact advertising demand.Snap’s finance…
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally to mark his 100th day in office, at Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan, U.S., April 29, 2025. Evelyn Hockstein | ReutersPresident Donald Trump on Wednesday blamed his predecessor and defended his sweeping tariffs after new data showed the U.S. economy contracting last quarter, while warning that his promised “boom” will “take a while.””This is [former President Joe] Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s. I didn’t take over until January 20th,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA…
First Solar missed expectations on profit and offered investors weak guidance on Tuesday, but most analysts nonetheless remain bullish on the solar panel manufacturer. Shares of First Solar plummeted 13% in Wednesday’s premarket trading hours after the company reported first-quarter earnings of $1.95, missing the $2.49 analysts polled by FactSet had forecast. While the company’s first-quarter revenue beat expectations, First Solar’s second-quarter earnings guidance also missed the mark. First Solar sees its earnings for the current quarter coming in between $2 to $3 per share, lower than FactSet’s estimate of $3.99. As an additional blow, the company lowered its full-year…
