A lack of homes for sale is keeping potential buyers at bay. Signed contracts to buy existing homes rose just 0.1 percent in December from a downwardly revised November reading, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Taking the revision into account, sales were flat. Only the Northeast, likely due to warmer-than-average weather, saw gains. These so-called ‘pending’ home sales are now 4.2 percent higher than December of 2014. Pending sales are a forward indicator of closed sales one to two months later. Getty Images “Overall, while sustained job creation is spurring more activity compared to a year ago,…
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Mobile World Congress is the world’s biggest mobile-centric trade show. Major manufacturers from around the globe come together to announce all their new stuff at the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, Spain. Typically, we expect to see new devices fromSamsung, LG, Sony, and the like, but sometimes a dark horse company has a trick or two up its sleeve. So, to get you revved and ready for what’s to come, here’s a look back at some of the most memorable moments from MWC 2015. Samsung Galaxy S6 FLORENCE IONSamsung’s Galaxy S6 stole the show in Barcelona. After lackluster Galaxy reveals…
The ratings agency said that growth in property sales across the country would slow to 0-5 percent in 2016, after a strong performance of 16.6 percent in 2015. “Operating conditions become more challenging in 2016, given slowing economic growth, as well as the developers’ still-high debt leverage, margin pressures and high inventory levels in low-tier cities,” Kaven Tsang, a Moody’s senior credit officer, said in a report from Hong Kong. Many developers bought land aggressively in 2013 and early 2014, increasing debt leverage and weakening financial metrics, according to Moody’s. “The overall leverage of our rated developers remains high, which…
See larger image The evil men do Netflix’s original movie Beasts of No Nation may not have received any Oscar nominations, but it’s still well worth seeing, especially for the performances of Idris Elba and Abraham Attah, both of which deserved nominations. Many other movies available this week, ranging from bittersweet comedies to sci-fi romances, indie dramas to Hollywood thrillers, deserved more recognition than they actually received. But that’s part of the fun of being a movie fan: exploring and discovering things well after their theatrical dates. Even a goofy comedy-action movie and an experimental documentary deserve a second…
ARM has added a wealth of wireless technologies to its arsenal, but has no immediate plans to design a modem for mobile or Internet of Things devices. The company offers CPU and GPU designs that are widely used in smartphones andtablets. A missing piece is a cellular modem that ARM customers could license and put in mobile devices. ARM once considered developing a modem, but the design is complex and there are different protocols, technologies and customer requirements, said Ian Smythe, director of marketing in the CPU group at ARM. For example, a device maker might want a modem that…
Shares of Michael Kors shot up more than 20 percent Tuesday, after the handbag maker reported sales and profits that easily topped Wall Street’s expectations during the holiday quarter. More importantly, despite aggressive promotions that permeated across the broader handbag sector, the affordable luxury maker also reported better-than-feared gross margins. Adam Jeffery | CNBC A Michael Kors retail store on Market Street in San Francisco. What’s more, management indicated that the brand’s inventory build decelerated from the first half of the year, as it dials back on the amount of product it places in the troubled department store space. “Given…
Carriers’ heroic efforts to keep mobile devices well-connected can go to naught once users walk into a hotel or office building, if the signals can’t get in. Now someone else can solve that problem, according to Ruckus Wireless. The enterprise Wi-Fi company wants to become an LTE network vendor, supplying gear for indoor networks that could belong to a service provider, an enterprise or a building owner. Trials will start this year, and if the idea catches on it may go big in 2018, Ruckus Chief Operating Officer Dan Rabinovitsj says. On Thursday the company shared some details about the…
BP investors might as well be playing in the casino, especially after its latest earnings report, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Tuesday. “BP turns out to be a dice roll in oil. Who would have thought of that [CEO Bob] Dudley had put together a company that I thought wasn’t nearly as levered to the daily price of oil. Literally, that’s red-black roulette. Black, oil goes up, BP does well. Red, oil goes down, BP is a disaster,” Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street.” BP did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment. The oil giant reported Tuesday…
Plus Japanese PC companies may form a supergroup and Dell goes after the fashion crowd with a gold laptop. This week we discuss the ramifications of the FBI’s fight with Apple, a crazy modular desktop PC from Microsoft, and the possible rise of a new Japanese PC supergroup. COMMENTS PCWorld Staff | @pcworld PCWorld Feb 18, 2016 1:57 PM In Episode 4 of the PCWorld Show, Jon Phillips, Melissa Riofrio, and Gordon Mah Ungdiscuss the fight between Apple and the FBI, a crazy modular desktop PC from Microsoft, and a possible Giant Robot of a PC company from Japan. And,…
Here’s a riddle. What company can blow more than $3.5 billion on “other projects” this quarter and still have more black all over its income statement than at any time in its history? The advertising behemoth Alphabet, formerly known as Google. And I think it’s important to note that this was the first real Alphabet quarter where all of the other business lines were broken out. Why? Because investors are going to begin factoring those other projects into Alphabet’s multiple as they try to discern whether Alphabet can overcome a potential downturn in its core advertising business long-term. Is Amazon…