Roughly four in 10 US homebuilders are cutting prices to revive buyer interest, new data show, as traffic through model homes has fallen to its lowest level in 14 years. Builders are making the cuts even as they face rising construction costs.

Investors are paying sharply more to insure against an Oracle bond default, a sign of growing unease over the debt the company has taken on to fund artificial-intelligence data centers. Several Wall Street analysts say credit markets, not stock prices, are becoming the clearest stress gauge for the AI buildout.