Economy
-
Five college towns worth staying put in after graduation
Your diploma has been framed, the cap and gown are in storage, and you’ve been to more going-away parties than you can count. Now, where to focus that job hunt and narrow down where to live after graduation? If your destination wish list includes lots of culture, a smaller-town feel and football Saturdays (you’re never…
-
ChatGPT acts like a devious coworker: ‘It doesn’t own mistakes, but it admits them when you point them out’
Roni Rosenfeld said he would never dream of using ChatGPT at work, but he understands how it could be tempting, and — yes — even useful for others. Maybe. Just don’t expect it to be accurate, uphold your company’s policies, or even do exactly what it’s told. ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence search engine, is a…
-
Mortgage rates rise to highest level in six months. ‘Demand is likely to weaken,’ Freddie Mac says.
The numbers: Mortgage rates inched toward 7% as strength in the U.S. economy prompted investors to expect another rate hike by the Federal Reserve. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.79% as of June 1, according to data released by Freddie Mac on Thursday. That was up 22 basis points from the previous week — one…
-
Investors are building a record number of homes — solely to rent out. Will this hurt aspiring homeowners?
As aspiring homeowners contend with high mortgage rates, rising home prices, and a low number of homes for sale, the construction of single-family homes built deliberately to be rented is forging full steam ahead as investors bet on rentals. The number of newly built single-family homes being sold to investors to rent, or also known…
-
West Coast dockworkers accused of disrupting port operations, raising fears of shipping backups
Union dockworkers at West Coast ports on Friday were accused by their employers of engaging in “concerted and disruptive work actions,” moves that threatened operations at some of the nation’s largest import hubs. The dockworkers’ union, the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, “is staging concerted and disruptive work actions that have effectively shut down operations…
-
‘We averted an economic crisis’: Biden hails debt-ceiling deal in Oval Office address
President Joe Biden on Friday hailed passage of a bipartisan deal to raise the U.S. debt limit and avoid a government default, addressing the nation from the Oval Office. “No one got everything they wanted, but the American people got what they needed,” the president said. “We averted an economic crisis and economic collapse.” Biden…
-
Lululemon stock jumps on sales forecast, as China’s reopening helps results
Lululemon Athletica Inc. shares jumped after hours on Thursday after the yoga-wear maker and retailer forecast full-year sales and profit that were above expectations, after strong gains in China’s reopened economy helped propel first-quarter results. The company said it expected full-year sales of $9.44 billion to $9.51 billion, above FactSet estimates for $9.37 billion. Executives said they…
-
Americans expect inflation to stay painfully high. That’s good news for stocks.
Headline inflation may have come down over the past year, but consumers’ expectations about future inflation have not. In fact, five-year expected inflation has been inching up rather than down in recent months, according to the University of Michigan consumer survey. The median expectation is that inflation will run at a 3.1% annualized pace over…
-
Ryan Serhant on real estate: Bedrooms and home offices rank over price per square foot
Risk of a banking-sector collapse, wobbly stock investments and forever changes to where and how people work after the global pandemic revealed the upside of flexible jobs are just some of the drivers impacting high-end real estate — in fact, housing markets broadly. On top of that, the inventory of listings remains historically lean, forcing…
-
Dow ends lower as debt-ceiling deal goes to Congress
U.S. stocks ended mixed Tuesday, as investors weighed news of a debt ceiling deal that needs to quickly pass in Congress, technology stock gains driven by the promise of artificial intelligence software, and the ongoing question of whether more interest rate hikes are coming from the Federal Reserve. How stocks traded On Friday, the Dow…