Rising mortgage rates and continued home price growth are hurting affordability and fast becoming a toxic cocktail for the nation’s homebuilders. Sentiment among homebuilders dropped 8 points in November to 60 in the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. That is the lowest reading since August 2016, but anything above 50 is...
Goldman Sachs believes the U.S. economy will slow significantly in the second half of next year as the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates and the effects of the tax cut fade. “Growth is likely to slow significantly next year, from a recent pace of 3.5 percent-plus to roughly our 1.75 percent estimate of...
The U.K.’s draft Brexit deal, causing such upset among the British political establishment, is not perfect but the country must avoid crashing out of the EU without a deal, the president of the influential Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said Monday. “(The draft Brexit deal) is not perfect, we all know that,” John Allen told...
China will expand its ban on imports of solid waste, local media reported Monday, almost a year after its first curbs caused havoc in countries that sent their rubbish to the Asian giant. The regulatory action — which expands the prohibition to 32 categories of solid waste from the 24 banned last year — will...
BEIJING – China’s state planner on Monday approved a 42.1 billion yuan (S$8.32 billion) airport expansion project in Urumqi, capital of the far western region of Xinjiang, a key hub in China’s Belt and Road initiative. Construction will run through 2030 when the expanded airport is expected to handle 63 million passengers and 750,000 tonnes...
To attract visitors, Chinese shopping malls have been pulling out all the stops, such as installing outrageous features like polar bear aquariums and shark tanks. Now, a shopping centre in Chengdu, China, is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Shoppers said they did a double-take when they walked past a merry-go-round in front of the...
A photo of a hardworking grassroots official in Yunnan province drew attention online over the weekend because it showed him with grey hair－which was surprising at age 38. Li Zhongkai is Party chief of an impoverished village in Dayao county, Chuxiong Yi autonomous prefecture, where he has been working in poverty relief for six years....
Apple CEO Tim Cook didn’t name names when he spoke out against the privacy practices of big tech companies during a keynote speech in Brussels last month. But he didn’t have to. “We shouldn’t sugarcoat the consequences. This is surveillance. And these stockpiles of personal data serve only to enrich the companies that collect...
In June, less than a week after the shocking suicides of celebrities Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins felt compelled to address the matter head-on with his employees. From Orlando, where Robbins was attending a conference called Cisco Live, he sent a company-wide email. “In light of recent tragedies, I wanted to...
BEIJING – China’s foreign ministry said on Sunday (Nov 18) that no developing country would fall into a debt trap simply because of its co-operation with Beijing. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the comment in an online statement responding to remarks made by US Vice-President Mike Pence. “No developing country will fall into...