The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. eased again this week, modest relief for prospective home shoppers during what’s traditionally the busiest time of the year for the housing market.

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The rate fell to 6.76% from 6.81% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 7.22%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also fell. The average rate dropped to 5.92% from 5.94% last week. It’s down from 6.47% a year ago, Freddie Mac said.

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

When mortgage rates decline they help boost homebuyers’ purchasing power.

By DEE-ANN DURBIN

McDonald’s store traffic fell further than expected in the first quarter as economic uncertainty weighed on diners.

The trouble was particularly acute in the U.S., where same-store sales — or sales at locations open at least a year — slumped 3.6%. That was the biggest U.S. decline McDonald’s has seen since 2020, when a pandemic shuttered stores and restaurants and other public spaces nationwide.

McDonald’s Chairman and CEO Chris Kempczinski said lower- and middle-income consumers, worried about inflation and the economic outlook, cut back on fast food during the January-March period.

Industrywide traffic from consumers making $45,000 per year or less was down by double-digit percentages, he said, and traffic from middle-income consumers was down nearly as much. Only traffic from those making $100,000 or more remained solid, he said.

“We believe McDonald’s can weather these difficult conditions better than most,” Kempczinski said Thursday in a conference call with investors. “However, we’re not immune to the volatility in the industry or the pressures that our consumers are facing.”

McDonald’s rivals have reported similar downturns. Yum Brands, which owns the Taco Bell, KFC, Habit Burger & Grill and Pizza Hut brands, said Wednesday that its U.S. same-store sales fell 2% in the first quarter. Chipotle also reported weaker-than-expected same-store sales in the first quarter.

McDonald’s same-store sales fell 1% globally in the first quarter, as growing traffic in Japan, China and the Middle East failed to overcome weakness in markets like the U.K. Without the impact of the extra leap year day in 2024, same-store sales were flat, the company said. Wall Street had been expecting an increase of nearly 2%, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

The Chicago-based chain has responded by introducing a U.S. McValue menu, which lets customers buy one item for $1 when they buy a full-priced item. It also announced Thursday that its $5 Meal Deal will run through the rest of this year. That deal was introduced last June and extended several times.

Kempczinski said the $5 Meal Deal is resonating well with consumers but the McValue menu is not driving the additional sales the company expected, so McDonald’s may make changes to it.

Kempczinski said McDonald’s had expected the first quarter to be its weakest this year. Already, things are looking up.

In April, a McDonald’s meal tied to “A Minecraft Movie,” which was offered in 100 countries, sold out of its collectible figures in less than two weeks. New chicken strips and the U.S. return of the snack wrap — exected later this year — are also expected to drive traffic, Kempczinski said.

McDonald’s reaffirmed its financial targets for the full year despite the impact of tariffs. And Kempczinski said McDonald’s internal surveys show that anti-American sentiment, particularly in Canada and Northern Europe, doesn’t seem to be impacting how consumers feel about the McDonald’s brand.

McDonald’s shares were down 1% in morning trading Thursday.

McDonald’s first quarter revenue fell 3% to $5.95 billion, short of analysts’ forecast of $6.09 billion, according to FactSet.

Net income fell 3% to $1.86 billion. Adjusted for restructuring charges and other one-time items, the company earned $2.67 per share, beating Wall Street projections by a penny.

Against concerns from state lawmakers about the dwindling state budget surplus, the city of St. Paul and Minnesota Wild have retooled their planned renovation of the downtown Xcel Energy Center, chopping millions off the total price tag and their nine-figure legislative request.

The proposed $769 makeover of the Xcel Energy Center has been slimmed down to a $488 million upgrade, freezing improvements to the adjoining RiverCentre convention center complex and Roy Wilkins Auditorium until an unspecified later date. The request to also been dropped from nearly $400 million in state bond funds to a relatively tidy $50 million.

Of the trimmed price-tag, the city and “local partners” will provide $200 million, and the Minnesota Wild would provide $238 million, plus any cost overruns for the rest of the renovation, according to a statement released by St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s office on Thursday.

The revised project still includes the renovation of the entire Xcel Energy Center into a “modern, best-in-class facility,” according to the statement. The state’s contribution will help expand the north wall along Fifth Street to improve the northeast entrance security area, increase disability access, update restroom plumbing and reduce pedestrian congestion.

Carter said the slimmer plan still continues the city’s and team’s shared long-term strategy to revitalize the downtown entertainment district and improve player and customer experiences at the arena, while also respecting “the state’s current financial realities.”

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Seated shoulder to shoulder during legislative presentations in late March, Carter and Wild owner Craig Leipold made the case to key House and Senate infrastructure and capital investment committees that the fate of the X, downtown St. Paul and the city as a whole were all closely entwined.

“Xcel Energy Center is now at the edge of its intended life span,” said Leipold, addressing House lawmakers on March 20. “Over the last few years, we’ve visited arenas in downtowns across the country, and seen firsthand how similar investment can literally transform communities. … This is the vital economic engine driving St. Paul. It’s hard to imagine St. Paul without it.”

Key allies appeared unconvinced

Not all lawmakers appeared convinced. The request at the time — $394 million in state appropriations bonds — may raise the state’s debt service some $30 million or more annually, though key details such as the payback timeframe have yet to be introduced in a formal bill.

Sen. Sandy Pappas (Courtesy photo)

Key potential allies such as state Sen. Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, and state Rep. Maria Isa Perez-Vega, both of whom represent downtown St. Paul, questioned the timing, given that the state surplus is projected to dwindle into a shortfall by 2028-2029 and there’s talk of a recession.

State Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten, DFL-St. Paul, told members of the Senate Committee on Capital Investment in March she would introduce a bill on behalf of the city and the team, but that has yet to happen, and lawmakers have little more than two weeks left to produce the next two-year state budget.

House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman and others have questioned criticized hefty public subsidies for stadiums leased by privately-owned sports teams, though some conservative lawmakers appeared more supportive in committee hearings.

The Xcel Energy Center, which opened in 2000, welcomed 1 million visitors to Wild and Frost hockey games, concerts, performances and other gathering in the first three months of this year alone. The arena complex draws more than 2.1 million visitors and $383 million in spending annually, according to the city.

The mayor’s office said the city is still committed to renovating the 27-year-old St. Paul RiverCentre and the 93-year-old Roy Wilkins Auditorium, and the city and Wild are likely to seek additional funding coming years. The city maintains project fact sheets at stpaul.gov/arena.

The “X” will soon lose its name as a 25-year-old naming rights agreement with Xcel Energy expires this summer. A new corporate naming rights sponsor is expected to be announced before the next hockey season.

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By ZEKE MILLER, AAMER MADHANI and SEUNG MIN KIM, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House national security adviser Mike Waltz is set to depart the administration, according to two people familiar with the matter on Thursday, marking the first major staff shakeup of President Donald Trump’s second term.

Waltz came under searing scrutiny in March after revelations that he added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a private text chain on the encrypted messaging app Signal, which was used to discuss planning for a sensitive March 15 military operation against Houthi militants in Yemen. A far-right ally of the president, Laura Loomer, has also targeted Waltz, telling Trump in a recent Oval Office conversation that he needs to purge aides who she believes are insufficiently loyal to the “Make America Great Again” agenda.

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Waltz’s deputy, Alex Wong, is also expected to depart, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel move not yet made public. The National Security Council did not respond do a request for comment.

Waltz, who served in the House representing Florida for three terms before his elevation to the White House, is the most prominent senior administration official to depart since Trump returned to the White House. In his second term, the Republican president had been looking to avoid the tumult of his first four years in office, during which he cycled through four national security advisers, four White House chiefs of staff and two secretaries of state.

The Signal chain also showed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop. Waltz had previously taken “full responsibility” for building the message chain and administration officials described the episode as a “mistake” but one that caused Americans no harm. Waltz maintained that he was not sure how Goldberg ended up in the messaging chain, and insisted he did not know the journalist.

Trump and the White House — which insisted that no classified information was shared on the text chain — have stood by Waltz publicly throughout the episode. But the embattled national security adviser was also under siege from personalities such as Loomer, who had been complaining to administration officials that she had been excluded from the vetting process for National Security Council aides. In her view, Waltz relied too much on “neocons” — referring to hawkish neoconservatives within the Republican Party — as well as others who Loomer argued were “not-MAGA-enough” types.

Waltz was on television as late as Thursday morning, promoting the administration’s agreement with Kyiv that would allow the U.S. to access Ukraine’s critical minerals and other natural resources. As reports began to circulate that Waltz could be leaving the administration, Loomer appeared to take credit in a post on the social media site X, writing: “SCALP.”