Author: Money Mechanics

Pending home sales are declining and touring activity is slumping.  U.S. pending home sales fell 4.1% from a year earlier during the four weeks ending April 12, the biggest decline in over a year.  Sales fell in all but seven of the 50 biggest U.S. metro areas, with the biggest declines in Providence, RI (-17.5%), Houston (-16.9%) and Nassau County, NY (-14.8%). The biggest increases were in San Francisco (9.6%), West Palm Beach, FL (8.2%) and Miami (6.4%).  Homebuying demand is unseasonably slow. Home-touring activity is up just 11% since the start of the year, compared to a 40% increase…

pros and cons Pros Hi-res audio supportMulti-room integrationDolby Atmos support Cons More expensive than competitorsVague EQ settings Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.Sonos has perhaps been the most recognized name in the home speaker market for some time, but Denon has something to say about that. The company recently launched its lineup of second-generation home speakers: the Denon Home 200, Home 400, and Home 600.The Denon Home 400 is the mid-tier option in the lineup, and it’s designed to go head-to-head with the Sonos Era 300. It has a similar, larger form factor, up-firing Dolby Atmos speakers, and…

(By Oil & Gas 360) – Geothermal energy is having a moment, and this time, it’s not driven by policy headlines or climate targets alone. It’s being pulled forward by something more immediate: the need for reliable, always-on power. A series of recent developments is reshaping how investors and operators think about geothermal’s role in the U.S. energy mix. EIG’s launch of a dedicated geothermal investment fund signals that institutional capital is moving beyond pilot projects and into scalable deployment. The focus is clear, backing baseload power solutions that can compete in a grid increasingly defined by volatility and rising…

(Image credit: Getty Images)The Nasdaq Composite about-faced mid-morning and resumed its upward march on Thursday, as tech stocks carry on in the face of war. All three main U.S. equity indexes spent time in the red before rising, keeping a bullish trend intact, despite multiple disruptions and continuing volatility in the crude oil market.According to Bloomberg, leaders in the Middle East and Europe say it’ll take “about six months” to negotiate a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran and are calling for the parties to open the Strait of Hormuz immediately.”Gulf states believe Iran is looking to build a…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldIf the Trump administration is to be believed, the announcement of a two-week ceasefire with Iran was an “overwhelming victory” for Washington, and the economy is “roaring back”.However, reports of Iran demanding payment for passage through the Strait of Hormuz in Chinese yuan or crypto suggest wider economic consequences from the conflict. Meanwhile, European and Asian investors are becoming leerier of exposure to the US and its currency. Even US investors are fearful of efforts to undermine the integrity of…

The world economy remains hostage to the war in the Middle East. Although the news flow remains extremely erratic, direct combat between Iran and the United States has been muted (although fighting was happening in Lebanon with Iranian proxies). As I believe I noted before, one of my “hobbies” in university was reading up on international relations theory and diplomatic history. The current situation appears somewhat bizarre from the perspective of that theory. The usual story from the Realist perspective was that diplomacy since the Peace of Westphalia was determined by national interests. Since nations’ interests are determined by material…

Maskot | Maskot | Getty ImagesWomen in their 20s are buying homes in growing numbers, according to a new study. They may want to consider pairing the purchase with another financial task: Creating an estate plan.More than a third, 35%, of Gen Z home buyers are single women, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2026 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends report, which is based on transactions made between July 2024 and June 2025. The Gen Z buyers were ages 18 to 26.The share is up from 30% the prior year and is the highest of any age group,…

Reed Hastings, the co-founder and chairman of Netflix, is leaving the company’s board when his term expires this summer. Hastings is stepping aside to focus on “philanthropy and other pursuits,” the company said in a letter to shareholders. The departure was revealed in the company’s first-quarter earnings report published Thursday. Hastings will officially leave the board when his term is up in June, according to the filing. “Netflix changed my life in so many ways, and my all‑time favorite memory was January 2016, when we enabled nearly the entire planet to enjoy our service,” Hastings said in a statement included…

Inheriting a home can feel like a gift. After the grief, the paperwork, and the family conversations nobody wants to have, there it is: a house with your name on it. In fact, for some of us, inheritance is a financial strategy in and of itself. It’s easy to think of it as a windfall, especially at a moment when home values remain near historic highs.The reality is more complicated—and often less valuable than it looks on paper. Between taxes, probate costs, deferred maintenance, ongoing expenses, and the potential costs of making emotional decisions, the amount you actually walk away…

(Image credit: Getty Images)A war in the Middle East that will constrain the flow of critical commodities through a geostrategic bottleneck could seem like a compelling opportunity wrapped in a crisis. Wall Street sophisticates would call this kind of event a “special situation” or something similar.Indeed, failed peace talks in Islamabad and the subsequent imposition of a U.S. blockade “point to a more prolonged conflict rather than a quick de-escalation,” BCA Research Chief Strategist Felix Vezina-Poirier writes. And negotiations are complicated by the U.S.’s insistence that Iran terminate operations to enrich uranium.At the same time, the U.S. blockade “raises escalation…