Lennar Corp. LEN shares rose in the extended session Wednesday after the homebuilder’s quarterly results and raised forecast topped Wall Street estimates. Lennar shares rose 3% after hours, following a 1.1% decline in the regular session to close at $114.75. The company reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $871.7 million, or $3.01 a share, compared with $1.32 billion, or $4.49 a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue fell to $8.05 billion from $8.36 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast $2.33 a share on revenue of $7.22 billion. “During the quarter, we continued to see the housing market normalize and recover from the Fed’s 2022 aggressive interest-rate hikes in response to elevated inflation,” said Stuart Miller, Lennar chairman, in a statement. “As consumers have come to accept a ‘new normal’ range for interest rates, demand has accelerated, leaving the market to reconcile the chronic supply shortage derived from over a decade of production deficits.” Home deliveries rose 3% from a year ago to 17,074, while analysts were forecasting 15,654. Lennar said it expects to deliver 18,000 to 19,000 homes in the fiscal third quarter, and 68,000 to 70,000 for the year, up from a previous forecast of 62,000 to 66,000. Analysts, on average, had forecast 16,445 for the third quarter, and 63,755 for the year.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday said she didn’t have much information when she was asked about Microsoft MSFT co-founder Bill Gates reportedly planning to meet Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a trip to China. “I don’t know if Bill Gates has reached out to us or if we have reached out to him,” she told reporters, adding that Gates can speak for himself about his trip.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday vetoed a bill that was intended to nix his administration’s new emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during a briefing. The measure had passed the Republican-run House and the Democratic-controlled Senate, where Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted with Republicans to pass it.