Minnesota United vs. Austin FC

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Q2 Stadium, Austin
Stream: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
Radio: KSTP-AM, 1500
Weather: 61 degrees, sunny, 5 mph east wind
Betting line: Austin plus-145; draw plus-230; MNUFC plus-175

Form: Minnesota (4-2-4, 16 points) lost 3-1 to first-place Vancouver on Sunday, meaning the two scoreless draws before the defeat put Loons’ winless run at three consecutive. The last three for Austin (5-1-4, 16 points) are: defeat to Vancouver (5-1), win over last-place L.A. Galaxy (2-1) and loss to Houston (2-0) on Saturday.

Recent matchups: Loons won 2-1 in Texas in the 2024 season opener; Austin then won 1-0 at Allianz Field in August. Austin is 5-0-4 in MLS vs. Minnesota.

Quote: “I don’t want to overreact and make a catastrophe out of one performance,” head coach Eric Ramsay said about the Whitecaps defeat. “We looked at that game as the end of a 10-game block and we sort of chunked the season up that way. Had someone said at the beginning that we would lose two of 10 games, we would have 16 points and we would have the basis of a really competitive team, I would be really happy with where we were.”

Update: New signing Julian Gressel is fit enough to be available in the game-day roster against Austin. Ramsay hasn’t said whether the projected right wing-back or right midfielder might start or come off the bench in Texas.

Absences: Hassani Dotson (knee), Owen Gene (ankle), Kipp Keller (hamstring) are out. Kelvin Yeboah (ankle) is questionable after subbing out against Vancouver.

Projected XI: In a 5-3-2 formation, FW Tani Oluwaseyi, FW Kelvin Yeboah; MF Joaquin Pereyra, MF Robin Lod, MF Wil Trapp; LWB Joseph Rosales, CB Nicholas Romero, CB Michael Boxall, CB Jefferson Diaz, RWB Bongi Hlongwane; GK Dayne St. Clair.

Expectation: Rosales plays against Austin after he denied saying a slur to Vancouver’s Emmanuel Sabbi last weekend. The Loons are letting the MLS investigation play out, but as they await a conclusion, the Honduran will remain a part of the lineup.

Scouting report: Austin spend huge sums of money to bring in three attackers — Brandon Vazquez, Myrto Uzuni and Osman Bukari. They have a combined four goals scored and a total of 9.3 expected goals, according to FBref.com. Loons defense was cut open a few times by Vancouver and this expensive trio has shown they can get in threatening spaces, if not convert enough times.

Stats: Austin is tied for second-fewest goals scored (seven) in MLS this season, but they have been stingy in goals conceded (10).

Another quote: “They have plenty for you to worry about,” Ramsay said of Verde. “As a consequence of Sunday, we have to look at ourselves and make sure we are a really good version of ourselves and we have a strong focus on what we can do.”

Prediction: It feels like the Loons are in a rut and Austin is a team capable of keeping them down. Austin win, 1-0.

By ALEX VEIGA, Associated Press Business Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Home ownership is receding further out of reach for most Americans as elevated mortgage rates and rising prices stretch the limits of what buyers can afford.

A homebuyer now needs to earn at least $114,000 a year to afford a $431,250 home — the national median listing price in April, according to data released Thursday by Realtor.com

The analysis assumes that a homebuyer will make a 20% down payment, finance the rest of the purchase with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, and that the buyer’s housing costs won’t exceed 30% of their gross monthly income — an often-used barometer of housing affordability.

Based off the latest U.S. median home listing price, homebuyers need to earn $47,000 more a year to afford a home than they would have just six years ago. Back then, the median U.S. home listing price was $314,950, and the average rate on a 30-year mortgage hovered around 4.1%. This week, the rate averaged 6.76%.

FILE – A sign announcing a home for sale is posted outside a home, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024, in Aceworth, Ga., near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)

The annual income required to afford a median-priced U.S. home first crossed into the six figures in May 2022 and hasn’t dropped below that level since. Median household income was about $80,600 annually in 2023, according to the U.S. Census bureau.

In several metro areas, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston, the annual income needed to afford a median-priced home tops $200,000. In San Jose, it’s more than $370,000.

Rock-bottom mortgage rates turbocharged the housing market during the pandemic, fueling bidding wars for homes that pushed up sale prices sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars above a seller initial asking price. U.S. home prices soared more than 50% between 2019 and 2024.

The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from their pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years. In March, they posted their largest monthly drop since November 2022.

It’s not all bad news for prospective homebuyers.

Home prices are rising much more slowly than during the pandemic housing market frenzy. The national median sales price of a previously occupied U.S. home rose 2.7% in March from a year earlier to $403,700, an all-time high for March, but the smallest annual increase since August.

In April, the median price of a home listed for sale rose only 0.3% from a year earlier, according to Realtor.com.

Buyers who can afford current mortgage rates have a wider selection of properties now than a year ago.

Active listings — a tally that encompasses all homes on the market except those pending a finalized sale — surged 30.6% last month from a year earlier, according to Realtor.com. Home listings jumped between 67.6% and 70.1% in San Diego, San Jose and Washington D.C.

As properties take longer to sell, more sellers are reducing their asking price. Some 18% of listings had their price reduced last month, according to Realtor.com.

“Sellers are becoming more flexible on pricing, underscored by the price reductions we’re seeing, and while higher mortgage rates are certainly weighing on demand, the silver lining is that the market is starting to rebalance,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “This could create opportunities for buyers who are prepared.”

By JIANG JUNZHE and MATT OTT, Associated Press

Wall Street was poised to open with gains Friday after China’s Commerce Ministry said Beijing is evaluating overtures from the U.S. regarding President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Futures for the S&P 500 gained 0.3% before the bell and were on track for a ninth straight day of gains. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4% and Nasdaq futures ticked up 0.2%.

Exxon Mobil’s reported its lowest first-quarter profit in years, stung by weaker crude prices and higher costs. Its shares ticked up less than 1% before markets opened Friday.

Shares in rival Chevron fell more than 2% after it also reported its smallest first quarter profit in years.

A barrel of U.S. benchmark crude fell below $60 this week, a level at which many producers can no longer turn a profit. On Friday, a barrel of U.S. crude fell another 66 cents to $58.58. Brent crude, the European standard, declined 64 cents to $61.49 per barrel.

Energy prices mostly have been in decline since Trump’s inauguration in January, with the cost of a barrel of oil sliding as much as $20. At this time last year, a barrel of U.S. crude cost $78.

Uncertainty about the impact of Trump’s on-again-off-again tariff announcements has consumers and businesses feeling anxious about the future. Rapidly falling oil prices signal pessimism about economic growth and can be a harbinger of a recession as manufacturers cut production, businesses cut travel costs and families rethink vacation plans.

Late Thursday, technology behemoths Amazon and Apple reported their latest results. Shares of Apple fell about 3% overnight after the iPhone company beat Wall Street expectations but forecast an additional $900 million to its costs in the current quarter as a result of the tariffs, if they remain in place as announced.

Amazon shares fell close to 1% after the online retailer reported better-than-expected results but also said that tariffs were clouding its near-term forecast.

Friday the government released its April jobs report showing that American employers added a better-than-expected 177,000 jobs.

Economists expected the U.S. Labor Department to report that employers added 135,000 jobs last month. That’s a healthy number, but it would be down sharply from the surprisingly strong 228,000 jobs added in March.

Many economists worry the job market could deteriorate with Trump’s massive taxes on imports to the U.S. likely to raise costs for Americans and American businesses, which could result in slower economic growth.

However, hopes that Trump may eventually roll back some of his tariffs after reaching trade deals with other countries has helped to support markets this week. On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 0.6% for an eighth straight gain, its longest winning streak since August.

In Europe at midday, Germany’s DAX advanced 1.5%, the CAC 40 in Paris climbed 1.3% and Britain’s FTSE 100 was 0.7%.

In Asian trading, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 1.7% to 22,504.68 while markets in Shanghai were closed for a public holiday. Taiwan’s benchmark jumped 2.7%.

An unnamed Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson was cited as saying that Beijing had taken note of various statements by senior U.S. officials indicating a willingness to negotiate over tariffs.

“At the same time, the U.S. has recently taken the initiative to convey information to the Chinese side on a number of occasions through relevant parties, hoping to talk with the Chinese side. In this regard, the Chinese side is making an assessment,” it said.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 picked up 1% to 36,830.69.

Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato drew attention by mentioning that the country’s more than $1.1 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds could potentially be a “card on the table” in negotiations with Washington over Trump’s steep tariffs on autos and other imports.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.1% to 2,558.84 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 1.1%, closing at 8,238.00.

By KELVIN CHAN, Associated Press Business Writer

LONDON (AP) — A European Union privacy watchdog fined TikTok $600 million on Friday after a four-year investigation found that the video sharing app’s data transfers to China put users at risk of spying, in breach of strict EU data privacy rules.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission also sanctioned TikTok for not being transparent with users about where their personal data was being sent and ordered the company to comply with the rules within six months.

The Irish national watchdog serves as TikTok’s lead data privacy regulator in the 27-nation EU because the company’s European headquarters is based in Dublin.

“TikTok failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that the personal data of (European) users, remotely accessed by staff in China, was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU,” Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement.

TikTok said it disagreed with the decision and plans to appeal.

The company said in a blog post that the decision focuses on a “select period” ending in May 2023, before it embarked on a data localization project called Project Clover that involved building three data centers in Europe.

“The facts are that Project Clover has some of the most stringent data protections anywhere in the industry, including unprecedented independent oversight by NCC Group, a leading European cybersecurity firm,” said Christine Grahn, TikTok’s European head of public policy and government relations. “The decision fails to fully consider these considerable data security measures.”

TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is based in China, has been under scrutiny in Europe over how it handles personal information of its users amid concerns from Western officials that it poses a security risk over user data sent to China. In 2023, the Irish watchdog also fined the company hundreds of millions of euros in a separate child privacy investigation.

The Irish watchdog said its investigation found that TikTok failed to address “potential access by Chinese authorities” to European users’ personal data under Chinese laws on anti-terrorism, counterespionage, cybersecurity and national intelligence that were identified as “materially diverging” from EU standards.

Grahn said TikTok has “has never received a request for European user data from the Chinese authorities, and has never provided European user data to them.”

Under the EU rules, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, European user data can only be transferred outside of the bloc if there are safeguards in place to ensure the same level of protection.

Grahn said TikTok strongly disagreed with the Irish regulator’s argument that it didn’t carry out “necessary assessments” for data transfers, saying it sought advice from law firms and experts. She said TikTok was being “singled out” even though it uses the “same legal mechanisms” that thousands of other companies in Europe does and its approach is “in line” with EU rules.

The investigation, which opened in September 2021, also found that TikTok’s privacy policy at the time did not name third countries, including China, where user data was transferred. The watchdog said the policy, which has since been updated, failed to explain that data processing involved “remote access to personal data stored in Singapore and the United States by personnel based in China.”

TikTok faces further scrutiny from the Irish regulator, which said that the company had provided inaccurate information throughout the inquiry by saying that it didn’t store European user data on Chinese servers. It wasn’t until April that it informed the regulator that it discovered in February that some data had in fact been stored on Chinese servers.

Doyle said that the watchdog is taking the recent developments “very seriously” and “considering what further regulatory action may be warranted.”