Today is Monday (June 27), and pending home sales data being released this morning are expected to show a 4% drop, the seventh straight month of declines. New home sales data on Friday (June 24) showed a rebound of 10.7% in May with the median price of a house up 15.0% to $449,000 from a year ago. New home construction dropped to a 13-month low and consumer sentiment tumbled this month to a record low.
Jet pack man is back, reportedly seen flying near Los Angles International Airport (LAX) on Thursday (June 23) afternoon. A pilot landing at the airport alerted the control tower about an apparent person flying a jet pack. This is not the first time a sighting like this was reported at LAX.
The rumors are true — Emily Dickinson did release a video game. Emily Blaster is a poetry smackdown where players blast words in the right order. Here’s what else should be on your radar this morning.
Walk This Way. Banks and FinTechs are lying in wait to snatch up customers that walk away from credit unions. And customers will walk if they don’t feel they have access to the latest cutting-edge financial technologies and payment methods. In this edition of the “Credit Union Tracker®,” a PYMNTS and PSCU collaboration, members’ growing demands for touchless payment options are examined, as well as why investing in these features will be crucial for CUs in the near term. READ MORE
Customization with APIs. Neeraj Gupta, vice president of B2B Solutions at FIS, told PYMNTS in an interview that the broader application programming interface (API) ecosystem offers new ways to organize data for improved customer experiences. These APIs are accessible to financial services firms of all sizes so that even the smallest bank or FinTech can craft new services and products in a streamlined fashion. READ MORE
Dining Loyalty. Most U.S. restaurant brands don’t offer a loyalty app but rewards help drive customer decisions. In the June/July edition of the Order To Eat Tracker®, PYMNTS explores the adoption of loyalty programs by table-service and quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and how these programs can bolster customer engagement and restaurants’ bottom lines. READ MORE
Paycheck-to-Paycheck Disruption. Rising inflation and economic uncertainty are causing people from all income brackets to feel the pressure of making ends meet. The report “New Reality Check: The Paycheck-To-Paycheck Report,” a PYMNTS and LendingClub collaboration, found that nearly 150 million adults currently live paycheck to paycheck, making it the most common financial lifestyle in the U.S. READ MORE
ICYMI. Goldman Sachs is trying to raise $2 billion toward buying the assets of failed crypto lender Celsius Network, one of several that suspended withdrawals, swaps and transfers earlier in June. The company was reported to have $11.8 billion in assets in May, down from the $25 billion it had in October. READ MORE