News

With a record number of international students in the U.S., Trump brings uncertainty

Published

3 hours ago

November 27, 2024

With a record number of international students in the U.S., Trump brings uncertainty

A group walks on the UC Berkeley campus on March 14, 2022, in Berkeley, Calif. California led the U.S. in international enrollment, with over 140,000 international students attending schools there in the 2023-24 academic year, according to the Institute of International Education.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The 2023-24 school year saw more international students in the United States than ever before — setting a new record largely driven by graduate students and recent graduates in internship-type programs.

Over 1.1 million international students were in the U.S. during the last academic year, according to a survey of nearly 3,000 colleges and universities by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and sponsored by the U.S. State Department.

The new figures mark a full rebound from the start of the pandemic, when international enrollment dropped by 15%. But experts say those increases could once again be threatened under the incoming Trump administration, which upended the lives of many international students and workers in its first term.

President Donald Trump speaks at Snap-on tools, April 18, 2017, in Kenosha, Wis.

Already, a few schools have recommended that their international students traveling overseas for winter break consider returning to the U.S. before President-elect Trump takes office on Jan. 20. That includes the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Wesleyan University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

International students have made up around 5% of all college and university students in recent years. In the last school year, they injected about $44 billion into the U.S. economy, while also supporting about 378,000 jobs across the country, according to the group NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

Mirka Martel, who led the IIE survey, said while there is uncertainty, historically there has been bipartisan support to continue to welcome international students.

“We’ve seen numbers go up and down in the past, but overall, we’ve seen that there has been support, because of how much international students bring through economy and through culture to our states,” she said.

For the first time in 15 years, Indian students outnumber Chinese students

The new record in international students is largely fueled by graduate students and those in the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, which allows foreign students to briefly work in the U.S. after completing their studies.

While the number of undergraduate students stayed about the same compared to the previous year, the graduate cohort and OPT program grew by about 8% and 22% respectively — reaching historic highs.

Linda McMahon speaks during the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Meanwhile, India and China together accounted for over half of all international students in the U.S., according to the IIE. But for the first time since 2009, more students came from India than China, with over 331,000 students from India present during the 2023-24 school year.

The number of international Indian students has been rising since 2021, in particular due to an increase in the number of Indian graduate students coming to the U.S. Meanwhile, the number of international Chinese students has been waning since the pandemic. But China remains the top-sending country for undergraduates, with 87,000 students.

“What we’re seeing is that the number of undergraduate students in some countries has been taking longer to rebound than the graduate numbers,” Martel from IIE said.

California, New York and Texas continue to be the most popular states for international students, but Missouri saw the biggest growth last school year, followed by Michigan and Illinois. STEM fields remained a favorite, drawing over half of all international students.

Trump imposed restrictions affecting some international students in his first term

People walk by New York University in October 2023 in New York City. The university has a large international student enrollment.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Before Trump took office in 2017, the number of newly arrived international students in the U.S. had been rising for nearly a decade. During his first term, those numbers fell every year. But experts say international enrollment has fluctuated throughout the years, making it difficult to pinpoint the exact cause for the change in numbers.

One of Trump’s first initiatives upon taking office in 2017 was ordering a travel ban for nearly all travelers from several majority-Muslim countries. It was challenged in courts, but led to students being detained at airports or forced to return to their home countries. (It was later reversed by President Biden on his first day in office.)

Students from China also faced heightened scrutiny when it came to their visas amid an increase in U.S.-China tensions. That meant extra screenings, shorter stays, or even cancellations for at least hundreds of students.

And in 2020, the Trump administration temporarily barred international college students from being in the U.S. if their classes were entirely online. The move was met with swift backlash and quickly reversed.

Students and schools remain wary of incoming Trump administration

During this year’s presidential campaign, Trump said it was important to retain international student talent. “What I will do is, you graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country,” he told the All-In Podcast in June.

But some schools and international students in the U.S. have remained wary of the incoming Trump administration, given the president-elect’s first term.

Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to speak during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center on November 06, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

At the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Yewon You from South Korea and Rachel Syuen from Malaysia told NPR they felt a lot of uncertainty going into the new presidency. Both are in the U.S. as participants in the Sony Music Group Global Scholars scholarship program.

You, who is a senior, said she has been closely monitoring the news on visas, foreign workers and immigration. She added that she adjusted her winter break plans to return to the U.S. before the inauguration as a precaution.

You’s biggest concern is about securing a job in the U.S. after college. Her big dream is to work in Hollywood and produce film scores, specifically for sci-fi movies. But she knows it can be difficult to obtain a work visa, and that visa policies change frequently.

“I’m a senior and with a new president, there’s overlap on the pressure and uncertainty in finding a job after I graduate,” You said.

Syuen, also a senior, was initially excited by Trump’s promise of green cards for international students, but now questions if he will follow through due to a lack of details. Syuen said opportunities to study music in Malaysia were limited. She hopes to stay in the U.S. to produce music that blends her experiences, like incorporating traditional Chinese instruments into pop.

“I am equally nervous about everything, but I am also doing my part just to be a better version of myself each and every single day so that I remain competitive,” Syuen said.

News

China’s market targets are ‘just psychological’, says former regulator

Published

2 hours ago

November 27, 2024

Press Room

China’s market targets are ‘just psychological’, says former regulator

Stay informed with free updates

A former senior Chinese financial regulator has said top Beijing leaders set “psychological” targets for the nation’s stock markets and currency exchange rate that are not based on fundamentals.

The comments to a seminar by Xiao Gang, former head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, offer a rare insight into the often murky world of elite policymaking at a time when the Communist party under President Xi Jinping has been tightening control of the financial system.

In videoed remarks made at the seminar in mid-November at the PBC School of Finance at Tsinghua University and published on the social media site X last week, Xiao said that while top leaders did not officially set market levels, they became nervous when certain thresholds were passed.

Xiao, who was removed as CSRC chief in 2016 after a severe market downturn, said senior officials kept “goals” in their minds for the markets. These were not “personal” targets but depended “rather on what the leadership considers as the standard”.

He said China’s leaders became uncomfortable if the stock market benchmark, the Shanghai Composite index, fell below 3,000 points.

“The 3,000-point goal is just a psychological goal; it has no scientific proof and does not come with any [formal] government order,” Xiao said, laughing. “But there is a consensus [among the top leadership].”

“This has been a [perception] ingrained in people’s minds for many years. But how much scientific basis is there for this? None,” he said.

The frank comments from Xiao, who worked in China’s central bank before playing an important role in banking sector reform as head of state-owned Bank of China, were highly unusual even for a retired senior official. In China, discussion or criticism of the internal workings of the leadership process can lead to severe punishment.

Xiao said China’s leaders had once considered any weakening of the renminbi through Rmb7 to the dollar to be a very worrying prospect, but when this did finally occur several years ago, “nothing significant happened” to the markets.

“It wasn’t us who were worried; it was the senior leadership,” he said.

The onshore renminbi was trading onshore at Rmb7.26 to the dollar on Wednesday.

Beijing sees the exchange rate as critically important to its mission to develop China as a reliable trading partner, with numerous officials calling for a stable exchange rate against the dollar.

Chinese authorities also see the country’s stock markets as both venues for corporate fundraising and important tools for maintaining social stability. Investors have long suspected the top leadership maintains unofficial targets for the markets and tries to steer trading when prices breach these levels.

Millions of Chinese households participate in the stock market as one of a limited range of investment opportunities available to the middle class in the country, particularly after a recent real estate sector crash.

State-affiliated entities, known as the “national team”, occasionally launch buying sprees to prop up stocks. In September, the government announced one of its biggest monetary policy interventions yet to encourage more institutional buying of equities.

Xiao was asked at the seminar about the government’s use of the “national team” to support markets.

“The ‘national team’ only intervenes at rock-bottom levels, such as 2,600, 2,700, or 2,800 points,” he said, referring to the Shanghai Composite Index. The index was at 3,276.58 after Wednesday’s morning trading session, up 0.5 per cent on the day.

Xiao’s remarks drew a stinging rebuke from Dong Shaopeng, an advisory committee member of the Securities Association of China, a body under the direct supervision of the CSRC.

As a former regulatory official and a veteran of the financial sector, Xiao’s remarks could cause turmoil in public opinion, Dong wrote in an article posted on the social media platform Weixin.

“Such information, when taken out of context, spreads false information,” Dong said.

Xiao could not be reached for comment. The CSRC and the PBC School of Finance did not respond to a request for comment. The People’s Bank of China declined to comment.

Data visualisation by Haohsiang Ko

News

Israeli and Lebanese leaders accept ceasefire deal, says Biden

Published

10 hours ago

November 26, 2024

Press Room

Israeli and Lebanese leaders accept ceasefire deal, says Biden

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free

Israeli and Lebanese leaders have accepted a US-brokered ceasefire deal, US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday, raising hopes of an end to the year-long hostilities between Israel’s forces and Hizbollah.

Speaking from the White House, Biden said the deal would take effect at 04.00 local time in Lebanon on Wednesday.

Israel’s security cabinet voted to approve the plan on Tuesday night, and it must also be approved by Lebanon’s caretaker government.

“Under the deal reached today . . . the fighting across the Lebanese-Israeli border will end,” Biden said. “This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.”

Under the terms of the deal, Israel’s forces will gradually withdraw from Lebanon over a period of 60 days, and be replaced by the Lebanese army. Hizbollah, the Lebanese militant group, will be barred from rebuilding its infrastructure in southern parts of the country.

The US and France will work with Israel and Lebanon for the ceasefire deal to be fully implemented, Biden said, adding there would be no US troops deployed in southern Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier on Tuesday evening that Israel was ready to implement the deal, but that the “duration of the ceasefire depends on what will happen in Lebanon”.

He also insisted he had reached “full understandings” with the US that Israel will maintain “full military freedom of action” in the event that Iran-backed Hizbollah violates the agreement.

“If Hizbollah violates the agreement and tries to arm itself — we will attack,” Netanyahu said.

“If it tries to rebuild terrorist infrastructure near the border — we will attack. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings in a truck with missiles — we will attack.”

As Netanyahu spoke, the Israeli military conducted heavy air strikes across Lebanon, including several neighbourhoods in central Beirut previously untouched by the conflict, unleashing fresh panic in the Lebanese capital.

Diplomats hope the deal will pave the way for an end to one of the bloodiest rounds of fighting in decades of conflict between Israel and Hizbollah.

US President-elect Donald Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz welcomed the agreement.

“I’m glad to see concrete steps towards de-escalation in the Middle East,” he said in a post on X.

Waltz added Iran was the “root cause of chaos & terror” in the Middle East and said the Trump administration “will not tolerate the status quo of their support for terrorism”.

The latest hostilities between Israeli forces and Hizbollah erupted last year when the group began firing rockets at Israel in solidarity with Hamas, after its deadly October 7 attack on the Jewish state.

Israel responded to the Palestinian militant group’s killings in southern parts of the country by invading Gaza, devastating much of the coastal enclave.

The fighting between Israel and Hizbollah has since killed more than 3,700 Lebanese and more than 140 Israelis, as well as forcing people from their homes on both sides of the border. More than 1mn Lebanese and about 60,000 Israelis have been displaced.

For most of the past year, the fighting between Hizbollah and Israel was largely confined to exchanges of fire in a narrow strip of land either side of the Blue Line, the UN-demarcated border between the two countries.

But in recent months it has escalated into a full-blown war, with Israel carrying out a ferocious bombardment of targets across Lebanon before launching a ground invasion in October.

The offensive dealt a series of devastating blows to Hizbollah, killing its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, and damaging large amounts of its weapons and infrastructure as well as destroying broad swaths of the country’s east and south.

Hizbollah and its patron Iran said most of the last year that they would not agree to a ceasefire without an end to the war in Gaza.

But Hizbollah has since changed its position, and Israel’s offensive in Gaza continues.

Biden said his administration would also pursue an effort to revive talks among Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and Israel on a ceasefire in Gaza.

He added normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and establishing a Palestinian state, “remains possible”. Doing so “will require making some hard choices,” he said.

“Now Israel must be bold in turning tactical gains against Iran and its proxies into a coherent strategy that secures Israel’s long term safety and advances a broader peace and prosperity in the region,” Biden said.

Cartography by Cleve Jones in London

News

Stock market today: S&P 500, Dow notch fresh records as Wall Street shrugs off Trump’s tariff threat

Published

10 hours ago

November 26, 2024

Press Room

Stock market today: S&P 500, Dow notch fresh records as Wall Street shrugs off Trump’s tariff threat

US stocks on Tuesday shrugged off President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to impose new tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico, with two major indexes securing fresh records.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose nearly 0.6% to nab a record close, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) also jumped about 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) reversed earlier losses to finish the day up around 0.3% as it reclaimed another back-to-back record.

The index had been under pressure for most of the day after drugmaker Amgen (AMGN) tumbled as much as 12% on weight-loss data that failed to impress Wall Street. Shares pared losses by the end of the trading session, closing down around 5%.

Markets were initially caught off guard by Trump’s pledge late Monday to slap big tariffs on the US’s biggest trading partners on his first day in office. His comments fired up trade war fears and dented Wall Street’s hopes that Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent would rein in any extreme moves by the new administration.

Carmaker stocks, both domestic and abroad, fell on the heels of Trump’s “America First” push. Nissan (7201.T) and Honda Motor (HMC), which have auto plants in Mexico, came under pressure, along with Ford (F), General Motors (GM), and Stellantis (STLA).

Outside of possible tariffs, investors also digested the release of the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee meeting ended Nov. 7, which showed officials prefer a gradual pace of interest rate cuts if the economy remains on solid footing.

“Participants anticipated that if the data came in about as expected, with inflation continuing to move down sustainably to 2% and the economy remaining near maximum employment, it would likely be appropriate to move gradually toward a more neutral stance of policy over time,” the minutes read.

Some officials noted that a resurgence of inflation, which has remained sticky, along with a downturn in the labor market, could force the central bank to pause its easing cycle.

The release sets the stage for the October reading of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, on Wednesday.

LIVE 13 updates

Dow, S&P 500 secure fresh records

It was another record-setting day on Wall Street as investors shrugged off President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to impose new tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico.
Both the S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) each secured record closing highs, with all three major indexes finishing the session in the green.
The benchmark S&P 500 rose nearly 0.6%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) also jumped about 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) reversed earlier losses to finish the day up around 0.3%.
Americans are feeling better about the labor market

After several months of downbeat data to end the summer had workers feeling sour about the prospect of finding a new job, consumers feelings about the labor market may be rounding a corner.
Advertisement

On Tuesday, fresh data from the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence survey for the month showed the difference between respondents who believe jobs are “plentiful” and those saying jobs are “hard to get” ticked up for the second-straight month. The metric, known as the labor market differential, ticked up to a reading of 18.2% in November, up from the cycle low of 12.7% seen in September.
“This slightly improved read on the jobs market is certainly boosting confidence and if it weren’t an election year, it would be the sole focus of consumers,” Wells Fargo senior economist Tim Quinlan wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday.
Overall, the upbeat labor market outlooked helped propel consumer confidence to a reading of 111.7 in November, above the 109.6 seen in October and the highest level in more than a year.
“November’s increase was mainly driven by more positive consumer assessments of the present situation, particularly regarding the labor market,” said Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board. “Compared to October, consumers were also substantially more optimistic about future job availability, which reached its highest level in almost three years.”
Fed officials see gradual interest rate cuts with a pause possible if ‘inflation remained elevated’

Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s November meeting released on Tuesday showed officials prefer a “gradual” interest rate cutting cycle if the economy continues on it’s current trajectory.
Advertisement

“Participants anticipated that if the data came in about as expected, with inflation continuing to move down sustainably to 2 percent and the economy remaining near maximum employment, it would likely be appropriate to move gradually toward a more neutral stance of policy over time,” the minutes read.
But recent sticky inflation prints have caught officials’ attention. In a recent speech, Fed Governor Michelle Bowman highlighted that in the past few months, when measures of inflation excluding gas and autos have largely moved sideways, the Fed’s progress toward its 2% goal has “stalled.” Should that trend continue, the central bank may opt to pause interest rate cuts.
“Some participants noted that the Committee could pause its easing of the policy rate and hold it at a restrictive level if inflation remained elevated, and some remarked that policy easing could be accelerated if the labor market turned down or economic activity faltered,” the minutes read.
Rivian stock climbs on $6.6 billion loan

Rivian stock (RIVN) is jumping, rising over 4% in afternoon trade.
Advertisement

Yahoo Finance’s Pras Subramanian tells us why:
Late Monday, Rivian said it won a “conditional commitment” from the Department of Energy (DOE) for a $6.6 billion loan, highlighting the company’s improving capital condition.
The loan, part of the DOE’s Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) program, would support the construction of Rivian’s upcoming assembly plant located outside of Atlanta.
Rivian paused development of the site back in March due to concerns about its capital position. At the time, Rivian said building its upcoming R2 vehicles at its existing Normal, Ill., plant instead would save the company over $2 billion in costs.
If finalized, the new DOE loan would restart Rivan’s plans to develop the Georgia assembly plant.
Advertisement

“This loan would enable Rivian to more aggressively scale our US manufacturing footprint for our competitively priced R2 and R3 vehicles that emphasize both capability and affordability,” CEO RJ Scaringe said in a statement. “A robust ecosystem of US companies developing and manufacturing EVs is critical for the US to maintain its long-term leadership in transportation.”
Read more here.
Bitcoin retreats in push to $100,000

Bitcoin prices (BTC-USD) retreated about 2% on Tuesday as the cryptocurrency’s bid to reach the $100,000 milestone lost steam.
The largest digital currency, which posted its longest losing streak since Trump’s election win, traded just around $92,500 per token in early afternoon trade.
Trump’s win pushed bitcoin prices to all-time highs in the immediate aftermath of the election, with the administration viewed as generally more friendly to the alternative asset class.
Advertisement

In July, Trump attended a bitcoin conference in Nashville and has since pledged to usher in more supportive regulation. His promises also include appointing a crypto Presidential Advisory Council and firing current SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
But markets are now weighing new promises from the President-elect, which include possible tariffs on all Mexican and Canadian imports. That could lead to more risk-aversion sentiment on Wall Street.
Other crypto-adjacent names mimicked bitcoin’s moves to the downside.
Shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR), which owns nearly 280,000 bitcoins, dropped around 3%. Last week, the company announced the purchase of an additional 51,780 bitcoins for $4.6 billion. The company now holds $16.5 billion worth of bitcoin.
Coinbase (COIN), which allows crypto trading on its platform, saw shares fall roughly 2%.
Advertisement
Amgen drags Dow lower after weight loss drug data fails to impress

Amgen (AMGN) was the biggest laggard in the Dow on Tuesday, falling as much as 12% after its weight loss drug met Wall Street expectations but was only on par with competitors like Eli Lilly (LLY).
Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani reports:
The company reported 20% weight loss from the drug MariTide in patients after 52 weeks in a phase II study. By comparison, current market leaders Eli Lilly (LLY) and Novo Nordisk (NVO) have products that provide weight loss between 14% and 24%. Analysts on an investor call with Amgen Tuesday morning characterized the data as “in line” with the currently available products.
Mizuho’s healthcare sector expert Jared Holz said, on the surface, the data would draw more interest, but because Amgen is late to the weight-loss market — with a phase III trial still needed — it is at a disadvantage.
In addition, “AMGN did not disclose which dose it plans to move forward, but would guess that the higher doses are driving better weight loss so need to consider how the side effect profile looks in these specific formulations,” Holz wrote in a note to clients.
Advertisement

Read more here.
Mexico, Canada respond to Trump’s tariff threats

Mexico will retaliate if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his recent tariff threats, the country’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said.
Late on Monday, Trump said in a post to his Truth Social account that he plans to enact a 25% tariff on all Mexican and Canadian imports. He said the levies would remain in effect until those countries address illegal immigration to the US and drug trafficking.
Sheinbaum said on Tuesday that tariffs would lead to increased job losses and inflation. “To one tariff will come another and so on, until we put our common businesses at risk,” she told reporters in a briefing.
The companies most exposed to the tariffs include automakers with plants in Mexico, such as Nissan, Honda Motor (HMC), Ford (FORD), Stellantis (STLA), and General Motors (GM), among others.
Advertisement

“Why impose a tax that puts them at risk?” Sheinbaum asked. “It’s not acceptable.”
The Mexican leader said she plans to send a letter to Trump, urging for more dialogue and collaboration between the two countries.
Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday morning that he’s agreed to meet with his provincial and territorial counterparts this week to discuss US-Canada relations.
“This is a relationship that we know takes a certain amount of working on,” Trudeau said. “And that’s what we’ll do.”
New home sales slump to lowest level in almost two years

Sales of new single-family homes plummeted in October to the lowest level in about two years as mortgage rates remained elevated during the month.
Advertisement

New home sales dropped 17.3% in October to a seasonally adjusted rate of 610,000 units, down from September’s revised rate of 738,000, according to Census Bureau data released on Tuesday. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected a pace of 725,000.
The median sales price of new houses sold was $437,300, up from $426,300 the previous month.
Mortgage rates marched higher during the month of October, discouraging buyers from purchasing a new home.
Builders have adapted accordingly. DR Horton (DHI) CEO Paul Romanowski told investors and analysts on the homebuilder’s fourth quarter earnings call in late October that the company’s executives “expect incentives will have to remain elevated in order to maintain affordability and monthly payments that our buyers are looking for.”
Consumer confidence rises to highest level since July 2023

American consumers continue to feel more upbeat about the outlook for the US economy.
Advertisement

The latest US consumer confidence index reading from the Conference Board was 111.7, above the 109.6 seen in October and the highest level in more than a year. The expectations index, which is based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions, ticked up 0.4 points to 92.3, significantly above the threshold of 80 that typically signals recession ahead.
Less than 64% of respondents said they believe a US recession is “somewhat” or “very likely” in the next 12 months, marking the lowest number of consumers fearing an incoming recession since the Conference Board began asking the question in July 2022.
“November’s increase was mainly driven by more positive consumer assessments of the present situation, particularly regarding the labor market,” said Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board. “Compared to October, consumers were also substantially more optimistic about future job availability, which reached its highest level in almost three years.”
In November, 33.4% of consumers said jobs were “plentiful,” down from the 34.1% seen in October. But the number of respondents saying jobs were “hard to get” also fell to 15.2% from 17.6% seen the month prior.
Stocks open mixed

US stocks opened mixed to kick off Tuesday’s trading session, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) dropping 0.3% after the index notched its latest record.
Advertisement

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) inched up roughly 0.3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) jumped about 0.4% as investors weighed the latest tariff threat from President-elect Donald Trump.
Home price growth slowed in September

US home prices rose in September, but the pace of price increases moderated on an annual basis.
The S&P Case-Shiller National Home Price Index increased 3.9% from a year ago, a smaller increase from the 4.2% annual gain seen in August.
Prices rose 0.3% over the prior month in September on a seasonally adjusted basis, unchanged from August’s monthly increase.
Advertisement

The index tracking home prices in the 20 largest metropolitan areas gained 0.2% in September from August, lower than a Bloomberg consensus estimate of 0.3% and August’’s 0.4%. The 20-city index jumped 4.6% compared to last September. August’s annual gain was 5.2%.
“Home price growth stalled in the third quarter, after a steady start to 2024,” Brian Luke, head of commodities, real & digital assets at S&P Dow Jones Indices, wrote in a press release. “The slight downtick could be attributed to technical factors as the seasonally adjusted figures boasted a 16th consecutive all-time high.”
Good morning. Here’s what’s happening today.

Economic data: S&P CoreLogic 20-city (August); New home sales (October); Conference Board Consumer Confidence (November); Richmond Fed manufacturing index (November), FOMC Meeting Minutes (November meeting)
Earnings: Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), Autodesk (ADSK), Best Buy (BBY), Burlington Stores (BURL), CrowdStrike (CRWD), Dell (DELL), HP (HPQ), Kohl’s (KSS), Manchester United (MANU), Urban Outfitters (URBN), Workday (WDAY)
Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning:
Advertisement

Wall Street still hasn’t got a handle on Trump
US finalizes $7.86B chips manufacturing award for Intel
Trump pledges 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, 35% on China
How a breakup could upend Google (and the tech world)
Best Buy stock sinks after broad earnings miss
Advertisement

Bitcoin retreats from $100K in worst spell since Trump’s win
4 ways Bessent’s honeymoon as Trump’s Treasury pick could end
Flash analysis: Another ugly quarter from Best Buy

Looking for some pre-holiday cheer? Well, you won’t find any in the earnings out of Best Buy (BBY) this morning.
A couple of things stood out:
I can’t say the report is surprising, given the discretionary category weakness we have seen in earnings reports this month from Walmart (WMT), Target (TGT), Home Depot (HD), and Lowe’s (LOW). But the declines for Best Buy suggest it will have a slog of a holiday season.
Advertisement

Yahoo Finance senior reporter Brooke DiPalma will have coverage on Best Buy throughout the morning, so stay plugged in here. Yahoo Finance will also be serving up live analysis out of the gate at 9 a.m. ET today — which you can catch here.