U.S. Pending Home Sales Unexpectedly Climb 0.7% In May

After reporting steep drops in U.S. pending home sales over the past several months, the National Association of Realtors released a report on Monday showing an unexpected rebound in pending home sales in the month of May.

NAR said its pending home sales index climbed 0.7 percent to 99.9 in May after plunging by 4.0 percent to a revised 99.2 in April. The increase surprised economists, who had expected pending home sales to tumbled by another 3.7 percent.

A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.

“Despite the small gain in pending sales from the prior month, the housing market is clearly undergoing a transition,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “Contract signings are down sizably from a year ago because of much higher mortgage rates.”

The unexpected increase in pending home sales came as pending home sales in the Northeast spiked by 15.4 percent compared to the previous month.

Pending home sales in the South also edged up by 0.2 percent, while pending home sales in the Midwest slumped by 1.7 percent and pending home sales in the West plunged by 5.0 percent.

“The largest decline in contract activity was observed in the West region, where homes are the most expensive,” Yun said.

He added, “This further indicates the growing need to increase supply to tame home price growth and improve the chances of ownership for potential home buyers.”

Fielmann AG Preliminary Q2 Pre-tax Profit Declines; Updates FY22 Guidance

Fielmann AG (FLMNF.PK) said, in its second quarter, external sales are projected to have grown to 505 million euros from 474.9 million euros, prior year. Consolidated sales will increase to approximately 437 million euros from 407.7 million euros. From April to June, the pre-tax profit will amount to about 39 million euros compared to 54.2 million euros, prior year.

The company noted that its first half was strongly influenced by a protracted Covid-19 pandemic as well as the impact of the war in Ukraine. Preliminary external sales incl. VAT and changes in inventories are expected to have risen to 989 million euros from 919.8 million euros, last year, while consolidated sales increased to about 851 million euros from 789.6 million euros. For the first half, the company expects earnings of 89 million euros compared to 96.0 million euros, last year, corresponding to a 10.4% EBT margin.

The company now expects external sales of circa 2 billion euros, consolidated sales of approximately 1.8 billion euros, and an EBT of more than 190 million euros for the full year 2022.

Amazon will deliver packages by bike and walk to reduce emissions in Britain

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Its “micromobility” hub in London will mean a million extra deliveries each year – and more sites are likely nationwide.

Delivery staff will ride e-cargo bikes and walk to homes and offices in the heart of the capital, replacing thousands of van trips on congested roads. Amazon already has 1,000 electric vans on UK roads and aims to ensure half its shipments are carbon net-zero by 2030 – and all of them by 2040.

John Boumphrey, Amazon’s UK country manager, said: “Our new e-cargo bikes, walkers and growing electric vehicle delivery fleet will help us make more zero emission customer deliveries than ever before across London and the UK in the coming months.”

Ukrainian Forces Lose Control Of The Last City In Luhansk

Russian forces have taken control of Lysychansk and a number of nearby settlements in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine.

With this, Ukrainian forces have lost control of the last city in Luhansk.

This was reported by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to President Vladimir Putin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the latest setback for his forces on the war front, saying that they were forced to leave the city as their lives were indanger in the face of incessant Russian artillery shelling.

The mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk said six people were killed and 15 other were hurt in Russian attack on Sunday.

18K New Covid Cases, 144 Deaths In US

18551 people were reported Covid positive on Sunday, taking the total number of people infected with coronavirus in the United States to 86,980,002, as per latest data by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

144 Covid deaths reported on the same day took the total U.S. Covid casualties to 1,015,962.

Texas reported the most number of cases – 9198.

Deaths have increased by 5 percent in the last two weeks, New York Times’ latest tally shows.

More than 30000 people are currently in American hospitals with Covid infection, an increase of 7 percent over the last two weeks. Nearly 3,500 of these patients are admitted in intensive care units, marking 8 percent rise in a fortnight.

84,513,615 people have so far recovered from the disease, the Worldometer tally shows.

508 additional deaths were reported globally on Sunday, taking the total number of people who lost their lives due to the pandemic so far to 6,329,345.

European Economics Preview: Germany Gfk Consumer Confidence Data Due

Consumer sentiment data from Germany is due on Tuesday, headlining a light day for the European economic news.

At 2.00 am ET, the market research group GfK is set to issue Germany’s consumer sentiment survey data. The forward-looking sentiment index is forecast to fall to -27.7 in July from -26.0 in June.

In the meantime, retail sales and foreign trade data from Sweden are due.

At 2.45 am ET, France’s statistical office Insee releases consumer confidence survey data for June. The confidence index is seen at 84 in June versus 86 in May.

At 4.00 am ET, Italy’s industrial turnover data is due. Also, S&P Global publishes Austria’s manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ survey results.

At 8.00 am ET, Hungary’s central bank is set to announce its interest rate decision. The bank is set to hike its key rate to 6.40 percent from 5.90 percent.