Thai Airways employees mark the touchdown of the airline’s first Airbus A350 at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok on Wednesday. After a five-year austerity drive, the airline is ready to expand again. (Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg)

TECHNOLOGY

Samsung postpones shipments of Note7

Samsung confirmed that it has delayed shipments of its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Note7. The company said that “shipments of the Galaxy Note 7 are being delayed due to additional tests being conducted for product quality” in a statement to the Reuters news agency on Wednesday.

The decision comes on the heels of reports in South Korean media that at least two Note7 owners said their batteries exploded while their phones were charging.

Samsung has not specified whether the battery issues are the reason for this additional review. Samsung also has not clarified how many markets are affected by this decision; the U.S. and international versions of the phone differ slightly but have the same battery.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Note7 is the latest flagship phone for Samsung and began selling in U.S. stores on Aug. 19 for about $800 at full price. The phone has a 5.7-inch screen and a stylus, as well as an iris scanner that lets users unlock their phones with a glance. The phone has been fairly well-reviewed, though some have criticized its screen for being particularly prone to scratches and fractures.

Early demand for the Note7 has been high, and Samsung had already announced that it was having trouble keeping up. In July, Samsung reported that sales of its premium smartphones, including the Note7’s predecessor, had helped produce its highest profits in two years.

— Hayley Tsukayama

Housing

Pending home sales increased in July

More Americans signed contracts to purchase homes in July, a sign that demand for homeownership remains strong despite a shortage of listings on the market.

The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index rose 1.3 percent in July to 111.3, the highest reading since April. The index of upcoming sales increased 1.3 percent from a year ago. The number of signed contracts improved in the Northeast, South and West. But pending sales dipped in the Midwest.

Housing has staged a solid rebound in prices and sales this year, but the real estate market faces potential challenges as fewer properties are being listed for sale. Sales listings have slumped 5.8 percent from a year ago, to 2.13 million. The shortage means that many buyers are paying higher prices and scrambling to make offers sooner. The inventory shortage hit purchases of homes in July. The seasonally adjusted annual sales rate fell 3.2 percent to a rate of 5.39 million homes, the Realtors reported last week.

Pending sales contracts are a barometer of future purchases. A sale typically is completed a month or two after a contract is signed, suggesting that finished sales should rebound after slipping in July.

Inventories have fallen on an annual basis for the past 14 months. The increased demand reflected by the improving sales has failed to cause more homeowners to list their properties on the market, suggesting that many still are recovering equity lost in the housing downturn.

But the shortage also might stem from the increase in first-time buyers this year. Existing- home buyers often sell their house to finance the purchase of another property, which keeps inventory levels stable. But first-timers are buying homes out of savings, so the number of listings should fall when a rising share of purchases goes to this group, noted Tian Liu, chief economist at Genworth Mortgage Insurance.

The median home sales price was $244,100 in July, up 5.3 percent from a year ago.

— Associated Press

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— From news services

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