New home sales plunged in July as high prices and mortgage rates pushed buyers to think twice about closing the deal.  Sales of newly constructed homes fell by 12.6% in July from June and were down 29.6% from a year ago, according to a joint report from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the US Census Bureau. It was the second consecutive month of declines.  Only 511,000 new homes were sold last month, at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, down from a revised 585,000 in June. That's the lowest sales number since January 2016. A year ago, 726,000 newly constructed homes were sold.

Les Schwab Tire Centers named a new CEO on Tuesday, promoting chief financial officer Mike Broberg to take over the business early next year. Les Schwab is among Oregon’s largest companies, with 8,000 employees at 500 locations across 10 western states. Annual sales were approaching $2 billion at the time of Schwab’s sale two years ago to a California investment fund, Meritage Group.

Shares of the department store Nordstroms tumbled more than 12% after the company slashed their financial forecast for the full year.  Nordstrom said they are facing a glut of inventory that it must discount to move off shelves. The company did report fiscal second-quarter earnings and sales ahead of analysts’ estimates.