The headline news that was jointly reported by global financial media last night and this morning mainly included:

USA mortgage rates have fallen for the second consecutive week, easing pressure on home buyers.

Mortgage rates in the United States have fallen for the second consecutive week.

On Thursday, Freddie Mac said the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages was 6.77%, the lowest since mid-March and down from 6.89% last week.

According to Redfin Corp, the cost of borrowing is falling from its highs, helping to push monthly housing payments lower from record highs. Redfin said buyers also benefit from an increase in supply, with total housing listings nearing their highest level in about four years.

Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu said the expected increase in inventory will gradually put downward pressure on price hikes, and the drop in mortgage rates will help lower borrowing costs, providing more help for potential homebuyers.

US unemployment claims hit their highest level since August of last year.

Last week, the number of weekly jobless claims rose more than expected, the latest sign of cooling in the labor market.

The latest data from the US Department of Labor shows that in the week ended July 13, the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits was 243,000, up from 222,000 the previous week and above economists' expectations of 229,000. This was unchanged from the weekly jobless claims in June and the highest level since August 2023.

At the same time, the number of people continuously claiming unemployment benefits reached the highest level since November 2021, with the number of people claiming unemployment benefits close to 1.87 million as of the week ended July 6, up from 1.85 million the previous week.

Thomas Simmons, a US economist at Jefferies Financial, said that part of the reason for the increase in weekly jobless claims may be due to Hurricane Berrell causing workers to be displaced. However, Simmons pointed out that the trend in jobless claims in recent weeks reflects more problems in the labor market.

European Central Bank officials are reportedly considering whether they can only cut interest rates once this year.

According to people familiar with the matter, European Central Bank policymakers are increasingly skeptical whether they can only cut interest rates once this year.

The decision-makers are becoming more and more doubtful that the path of cutting interest rates twice is realistic, due to the persistent inflation pressure, and they do not want investors to think that the action in September is already set in stone.

Insiders revealed that the experience of the decision-makers' too firm action commitment to cut interest rates in June, reducing lending costs even after price growth accelerated, also urged them to keep all options open for the September 12 meeting.

ECB President Lagarde said on Thursday: "As for what decisions will be made at the September meeting, I think there are many possibilities, and it will depend on the performance of economic data." She reiterated that decision-makers need more information to decide whether to cut interest rates again.

OpenAI released a smaller and cheaper version of its flagship AI model.

OpenAI has launched a more affordable and streamlined version of its flagship artificial intelligence model to attract a wider range of developers and corporate clients in the increasingly competitive AI services market.

The developer of ChatGPT released GPT-4o mini on Thursday, a smaller and more affordable variant of its AI model GPT-4o. The San Francisco-based startup said the updated model will be launched today to free users and paying ChatGPT Plus and Team users and to enterprise clients next week. GPT-4o mini replaces the old model GPT-3.5 Turbo.

In May, OpenAI released GPT-4o to showcase its potential for processing audio and video information in real time and becoming a better digital assistant. But some features have been delayed by OpenAI to address potential security issues. GPT-4o mini offers some of the same features and OpenAI plans to add more over time.

There are reports that Broadcom is in talks with OpenAI to develop chips.

Shares of Broadcom rose nearly 3% on Thursday amid reports that the company has discussed producing artificial intelligence chips for OpenAI, potentially further entering Nvidia's field.

According to reports, OpenAI, the manufacturer of the ChatGPT chatbot, has proposed this idea to Broadcom as part of a wider discussion with chip designers. OpenAI has also hired former Google employee who was involved in the development of Tensor processors.

After the report was released, Broadcom rose 2.9% to $160.53 on the New York market. Boosted by strong sales of its ai devices, the stock has risen 44%year-to-date.

Representatives from Broadcom and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Blackstone's real estate business exit is slowing down and profits are below expectations.

As high interest rates stifled real estate valuations and reduced investor appetite for the business, Blackstone Group's real estate arm pressured the investment giant's second-quarter performance. The world's largest commercial real estate owner slowed its pace of real estate exits while adjusting to changing market conditions. The New York-based Blackstone Group said in a statement on Thursday that profit growth in credit and private equity did not offset the drag from fee-related earnings, which fell 3% to $1.11 billion.

Distributable earnings, or profits available to shareholders, rose 3% from the same period last year to $1.25 billion, or 96 cents per share. This was 2 cents lower than the average analyst forecast.

In the last two weeks of May, the company saw a surge in redemptions even as its $57 billion REIT remained open to withdrawals after competitors such as the Equity Trust Capital Group drastically curtailed investor cash-outs. Despite reaching levels where intervention is allowed, Blackstone's REIT fund saw outflows for two straight months. In June, investors who requested redemptions from Blackstone cut the amount they sought by 50% from May.

President Jon Gray said in an interview that the worst is over for the real estate market except for offices.

Due to high interest rates depressing real estate valuations and reducing investor investment, Blackstone Group's real estate division has put pressure on the investment giant's second-quarter performance. While dealing with changes in the market, the world's largest commercial real estate owner has slowed its pace of real estate exits. In a statement released Thursday, Blackstone Group based out of New York revealed that profit growth in credit and private equity was not sufficient to counteract the decline from fee-related earnings, which decreased by 3% to $1.11 billion.