Latest news with #HMI
NBC News
3 days ago
- Business
- NBC News
Homebuilder sentiment nears pandemic low as economic uncertainty plagues consumers
Higher mortgage rates and uncertainty in the broader economy continue to weigh on consumers — and consequently on the nation's homebuilders. Builder sentiment in June dropped 2 points from May to 32 on the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). Anything below 50 is considered negative. The index stood at 43 in June 2024. Analysts had been expecting a slight improvement, given recent tariff negotiations and pullbacks by the Trump administration. This index has only seen a lower reading than June's level twice since 2012 — in December 2022, after mortgage rates shot up from record lows during the first two years of the pandemic, and in April 2020 at the very start of the pandemic. Of the index's three components, current sales conditions fell 2 points to 35, sales expectations in the next six months dropped 2 points to 40, and buyer traffic fell 2 points to 21, the lowest reading on that metric since the end of 2023. 'Buyers are increasingly moving to the sidelines due to elevated mortgage rates and tariff and economic uncertainty,' said Buddy Hughes, NAHB chairman and a homebuilder from Lexington, North Carolina, in a release. 'To help address affordability concerns and bring hesitant buyers off the fence, a growing number of builders are moving to cut prices.' In the June survey, 37% of builders said they had cut prices, the highest share since NAHB started tracking the monthly metric three years ago. That is up from 34% who reported cutting prices in May and 29% in April. The average price reduction was 5%, which has been steady since late last year. 'Rising inventory levels and prospective home buyers who are on hold waiting for affordability conditions to improve are resulting in weakening price growth in most markets and generating price declines for resales in a growing number of markets,' said Robert Dietz, chief economist at the NAHB. 'Given current market conditions, NAHB is forecasting a decline in single-family starts for 2025.' The report follows quarterly earnings from Lennar, one of the nation's largest homebuilders, in which the second-quarter average home price dropped nearly 9% from the same quarter in 2024. Guidance on new orders and deliveries was also below analysts' expectations. 'As mortgage interest rates remained higher and consumer confidence continued to weaken, we drove volume with starts while incentivizing sales to enable affordability and help consumers to purchase homes,' said Lennar co-CEO Stuart Miller in an earnings release. Regionally, on a three-month moving average, the South and West showed the weakest builder sentiment. Those are the regions where the most homes are built.
CNBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Homebuilder sentiment nears pandemic low as economic uncertainty plagues consumers
Higher mortgage rates and uncertainty in the broader economy continue to weigh on consumers — and consequently on the nation's homebuilders. Builder sentiment in June dropped 2 points from May to 32 on the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). Anything below 50 is considered negative. The index stood at 43 in June 2024. Analysts had been expecting a slight improvement, given recent tariff negotiations and pullbacks by the Trump administration. This index has only seen a lower reading than June's level twice since 2012 – back in December 2022, after mortgage rates shot up from record lows during the first two years of the pandemic, and in April 2020 at the very start of the pandemic. Of the index's three components, current sales conditions fell 2 points to 35, sales expectations in the next six months dropped 2 points to 40, and buyer traffic fell 2 points to 21, the lowest reading on that metric since the end of 2023. "Buyers are increasingly moving to the sidelines due to elevated mortgage rates and tariff and economic uncertainty," said Buddy Hughes, NAHB chairman and a homebuilder from Lexington, North Carolina, in a release. "To help address affordability concerns and bring hesitant buyers off the fence, a growing number of builders are moving to cut prices." In the June survey, 37% of builders said they had cut prices, the highest share since NAHB started tracking the monthly metric three years ago. That is up from 34% who reported cutting prices in May and 29% in April. The average price reduction was 5%, which has been steady since late last year. "Rising inventory levels and prospective home buyers who are on hold waiting for affordability conditions to improve are resulting in weakening price growth in most markets and generating price declines for resales in a growing number of markets," said Robert Dietz, NAHB chief economist. "Given current market conditions, NAHB is forecasting a decline in single-family starts for 2025." The report follow quarterly earnings from Lennar, one of the nation's largest homebuilders, in which second-quarter average home price dropped nearly 9% from the same quarter in 2024. Guidance on new orders and deliveries was also below analysts' expectations. "As mortgage interest rates remained higher and consumer confidence continued to weaken, we drove volume with starts while incentivizing sales to enable affordability and help consumers to purchase homes," said Lennar co-CEO Stuart Miller in an earnings release. Regionally, on a three-month moving average, the South and West showed the weakest builder sentiment. Those are the regions where the most homes are built.
Miami Herald
10-06-2025
- Miami Herald
Shocking cyber mistakes leave US vulnerable, DOGE misuses AI
If a person lives in a safe neighborhood, they start taking safety for granted. But survival instincts kick in if the same person enters a dangerous environment. There are no such instincts in the cyber world. If you don't have a technical background or training, it is easy to end up in unsafe corners of the internet. Making a technical mistake isn't a requirement to get hacked. You could make the mistake of trusting a certain company or an organization. What if the domain name registrar you buy domains from gets hacked? Related: Amazon's latest big bet may flop You get an email saying they were hacked. You have no clue what data was stolen, so it is best to assume the worst. Now, you have to call your bank and tell them to cancel your card. It is not a pleasant experience. As a bonus, you find out it didn't take a genius to hack them. They were running ancient software. What if you are putting your trust into an entity that has a lot more enemies than an infamous domain registrar? What if they have a similar attitude to security? Welcome to last week's cyber madness. On June 5th, cybersecurity company Censys released a research paper revealing that in October 2024, its researchers discovered almost 400 human-machine interfaces for U.S. water facilities were accessible from the Internet. When I said madness, I was not joking. The company said in its report: "We initially assumed someone was playing a prank on us." All the exposed systems use browser-based software, some needed credentials for access, some were viewable but without control, and 40 offered access without credentials. Even those "only viewable" presented a security problem, as they revealed the details about the infrastructure to potential attackers. Related: Samsung Galaxy phones add creepy AI feature Censys informed the HMI vendor and the Environmental Protection Agency for coordinated remediation. The company stated that "Within nine days, 24% of the systems had been secured, and a few weeks later, this rose to 58%. As of May 2025, fewer than 6% of systems remain online in a read-only or unauthenticated state." While this security hole has mostly been fixed, it's just one we know about. God knows how many more are waiting to be found and exploited. Even if there are "no" obvious problems with how the system is protected, that does not mean the system is not vulnerable. The US Government Accountability Office released a performance audit report on the General Services Administration's website on June 3. The report discovered that hasn't fully implemented procedures to test the integrity of its backup data. I wouldn't be able to sleep if I were in charge of that system, knowing that there is a small but non-insignificant chance I won't be able to get it back up in case of a breach. More AI Stocks: Wall Street veteran doubles down on PalantirAnalysts double price target of new AI stock backed by NvidiaOpenAI teams up with legendary Apple exec Sometimes you don't need to wait for hackers to make a mess; you can just ask artificial intelligence to help you. And DOGE did just that. President Trump issued an executive order in February requesting that agencies complete a review of contracts and grants within 30 days. This presented the Department of Veterans Affairs with the daunting task of reviewing about 90,000 contracts. A software engineer from the Department of Government Efficiency was tasked with helping the VA review the contracts. He wrote an AI tool to determine which contracts were not essential. As you can expect, the tool hallucinated quite a lot. Most importantly, the size of contracts was often inflated a thousand times. It also had no clue how the VA works or which contracts are required by federal law. Related: Popular cloud storage service might be oversharing your data "The DOGE AI tool flagged more than 2,000 contracts for "munching." It's unclear how many have been or are on track to be canceled - the Trump administration's decisions on VA contracts have largely been a black box," reported ProPublica. The task that the engineer got was impossible. Even if he had a better understanding of what VA does and access to the best AI models, he would have failed anyway. While it is easy to say that somebody had to do it, quitting the job would have been more honest. In a way, he did. He open-sourced the code with permission from Elon Musk. He was fired, and this open-sourcing probably had something to do with it. Related: Veteran fund manager revamps stock market forecast The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
New Straits Times
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New Straits Times
#SHOWBIZ: 'Santan Berlada' actor Khairul Azhar dies at 70
KUALA LUMPUR: Actor, comedian and singer Khairul Azhar, best known for the popular 1980s sitcom Santan Berlada, passed away at his home in Taman Sri Andalas, Klang, at 10.37pm last night. He was 70. It is understood that the deceased was discovered unconscious in his car by his personal assistant. A medical team, contacted thereafter, confirmed Khairul's death. Beyond his acting and hosting career, Khairul was a prominent member of the Santan Berlada trio, alongside the late Ali Mamak and Accapan, with whom he also released a studio album. His passing marks the end of an era, as all three original members of the iconic trio have now departed. News of Khairul's demise was also shared by 1990s singer Anna Zanariah on Facebook, who penned a heartfelt tribute. "In 1997, when I was an artiste, I already knew him. The first time we met was on RTM for the HMI programme. "I was in the singing segment, and he was in the comedy segment. Suddenly, we were able to meet in the same organisation," she wrote. Anna added, "We continued to work together from 2000 to 2001 until he retired. Although retired, his contract was renewed for a few more years because the 'big boss' liked him." "We have so many memories together. He was always a reference point if I got an 'emcee job'. "Safe journey home, brother Khairul Azhar of Santan Berlada, my mentor is no more. "He left on a glorious Friday night. Paying that you'll be in heaven. God willing. April 1, 1955 - May 29, 2025. Al Fatihah," she concluded. Khairul was also known for his musical talent, serving as the drummer for the Klang Municipal Council (MPK) combo. His remains will be laid to rest at the Kampung Raja Uda Islamic Cemetery, Klang, after Friday prayers today. In addition to Santan Berlada, Khairul's extensive career included numerous roles in dramas and telefilms, as well as a memorable appearance in the film Mat Som alongside Imuda.
New Indian Express
28-05-2025
- Automotive
- New Indian Express
Pioneer expands R&D centre in Bengaluru, plans to start in-car product manufacturing in India by 2026
BENGALURU: Pioneer India Electronics, a subsidiary of Japan's Pioneer Corporation, which is into car entertainment and mobility solutions, on Wednesday inaugurated its new Research & Development (R&D) centre in Bengaluru. The company said it is strengthening its local footprint through R&D centres in Gurugram and Bengaluru and plans to begin in-car product manufacturing in India in 2026. The Bengaluru R&D centre is designed to drive innovation across a comprehensive range of automotive and mobility technologies addressing the growing demand for smart, safe, and affordable mobility across developing and urban markets, senior executives said. The centre will work closely with Pioneer's global network of R&D and engineering centers, focusing on the Automotive Vision & Sensing Technologies (dash cams, digital mirrors, 360° vision amongst other camera systems), Digital Cockpit & Human-Machine Interfaces (HMI) and Connected solutions for two-wheelers, among others, they added.
