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By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. edged lower for the second week in a row, a modest but welcome boost for prospective home shoppers in the midst of the spring homebuying season.

The rate fell to 6.64% from 6.65% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.82%.

The average rate has mostly trended lower since reaching just over 7% in mid-January. When mortgage rates decline, they boost homebuyers’ purchasing power.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also fell this week, pulling the average rate down to 5.82% from 5.89% last week. A year ago, it averaged 6.06%, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates are influenced by factors including bond market investors’ expectations for future inflation, global demand for U.S. Treasurys and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions.

The overall decline this year in the average rate on a 30-year mortgage loosely follows moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans. read more

By ALEXANDRA OLSON and CLAIRE SAVAGE, AP Business Writers

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — The acting chief of the top federal agency for protecting worker rights has signaled a pivot toward prioritizing President Donald Trump’s campaign to stamp out diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the private and public sectors.

The initial steps taken by Andrea Lucas, acting chief of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, have earned her strong backing from the Trump administration, which has moved against DEI through embattled executive orders that dismantled programs at federal agencies and threatened investigations and stiff financial penalties for federal contractors that engage in “illegal” diversity-related practices. Trump recently nominated Lucas, who has long been an outspoken critic DEI practices she argues result in discriminatory employment preferences, to a new five-year term as commissioner.

But former Democratic EEOC officials and prominent civil rights groups have accused Lucas of taking shortcuts that supersede her authority and they have urged employers to be wary of her directives and guidance, if not altogether ignore them. read more

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Financial markets around the world are reeling Thursday following President Donald Trump’s latest and most severe set of tariffs, and the U.S. stock market is taking the worst of it so far.

The S&P 500 was down 3.7% in afternoon trading, more than other major stock markets, and at its bottom in the morning was on track for its worst day since COVID struck in 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1,228 points, or 2.9%, as of 1:08 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 4.8% lower.

Little was spared in financial markets as fear flared globally about the potentially toxic mix of higher inflation and weakening economic growth that tariffs can create.

Everything from crude oil to Big Tech stocks to the value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies fell. Even gold, which has hit records recently as investors sought something safer to own, pulled lower. Some of the worst hits walloped smaller U.S. companies, and the Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks dropped 5.5% to pull it more than 20% below its record. read more

By AAMER MADHANI

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amazon has put in a bid to purchase TikTok, a Trump administration official said Wednesday, in an eleventh-hour pitch as a U.S. ban on the platform is set to go into effect Saturday.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Amazon offer was made in a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

The New York Times first reported on the bid.

President Donald Trump on Inauguration Day gave the platform a reprieve, barreling past a law that had been upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court, which said the ban was necessary for national security.

Under the law, TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance is required to sell the platform to an approved buyer or take it offline in the United States. Trump has suggested he could further extend the pause on the ban, but he has also said he expects a deal to be forged by Saturday.

Amazon declined to comment.

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TALLAHASSEE — For the first time in 16 years, the state wouldn’t offer sales-tax “holidays” under a House proposal that calls for an overall cut in sales taxes.

The House Ways & Means Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved a $5.43 billion package dominated by House Speaker Daniel Perez’ proposal to lower the state’s sales-tax rate from 6 percent to 5.25 percent.

The package, which will be a key issue in upcoming budget negotiations between the House and Senate, also would reduce a commercial-lease tax from 2 percent to 1.25 percent, along with sales taxes on mobile home sales, electricity and games such as pinball machines.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing to reduce property taxes instead of sales taxes. But Ways & Means Chairman Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville, said the House proposal (PCB WMC 25-01) would have the broadest effect.

“Homestead property-tax relief targets or benefits only Floridians at this point, but not all Floridians,” Duggan said. “Sales tax relief benefits all Floridians, plus some other people.” read more