One chief executive of a large office building company says the market for commercial real estate is already in recession. Is the commercial real estate market about to suffer a crash? Peter Grant reports in The Wall Street Journal: The number of big office landlords defaulting on their loans is on the rise, fresh evidence that more developers believe that remote and hybrid work habits have permanently impaired the office market. The giant investment manager Brookfield Asset Management recently defaulted on a total of over $750 million in debt for a pair of 52-story towers in Los Angeles, … [Read more...]
Mild Weather Pushes Gas Prices Down in Europe
Mild weather has stunted demand for natural gas in Europe this winter, keeping prices low in what could have been a volatile market in light of wartime sanctions and supply constraints. David Sheppard reports in the Financial Times: The price of European natural gas has fallen to its lowest level since the build-up to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, boosting the EU and UK economies and delivering a blow to President Vladimir Putin’s war effort. The benchmark gas price on Friday fell below €50 per megawatt hour for the first time in almost 18 months, down to €48.90/MWh, as traders … [Read more...]
Is the Metaverse Dead Already? Here’s Its Most Serious Problem
At the Financial Times, Jemima Kelly analyzes what has gone wrong with the "metaverse," and enthusiasm for the concept has drained away. She asks, "Where did it all go wrong?" Here is the answer she supplies, including identifying the metaverse's most serious problem: The metaverse has a couple of major problems. The first is that nobody seems to be able to agree on what it is — even the people setting themselves up as the leaders of our new fantastical future can’t seem to come up with a common definition. The likes of Zuckerberg appear to think it’s basically a VR world, offering the thrill … [Read more...]
Are Too Many People Betting on China?
Long positions on Chinese equities have become the "most crowded trade" amongst fund managers, according to a Bank of America survey. Chris Flood reports on the survey's findings in the Financial Times, writing: Global fund managers are becoming increasingly nervous about the durability of the rally in Chinese equities, with one in five of the view that it has become the market’s “most crowded trade”. Allocations by global fund managers to emerging market equities, including China, increased for a third straight month in February, according to a widely watched monthly Bank of America … [Read more...]
Families Priced Out of the American Dream
For years, working-class American families have had trouble buying homes, the most basic symbol of the American dream. Now though, they're even having trouble buying a car, another symbol of the free American spirit. David Welch and Keith Naughton report in Bloomberg: A shiny new car in the driveway has been an emblem of middle-class prosperity for generations. But for the typical American family, it’s now a distant dream. The average monthly payment for a new car has soared to a record $777, nearly doubling from late 2019, according to Kelley Blue Book owner Cox Automotive. That’s almost … [Read more...]
Is Tesla a Luxury Brand?
Tesla has reigned as the top choice for wealthy electric vehicle buyers for years, but is all that about to change? MarketWatch's Sean Tucker reports that recently, more wealthy buyers are considering BMWs than Teslas. Tucker writes: More people in the market for a luxury car in the fourth quarter of 2022 considered a BMW than any other car brand in the fourth quarter of 2022. The number of shoppers considering a Tesla TSLA, -1.55% plunged, falling to a single-digit percentage. The now-Texas-based electric-vehicle maker cut prices drastically shortly after the end of the quarter. Early … [Read more...]
Why You Should Design a Retirement Portfolio that Lasts 30+ Years
In The Wall Street Journal, Josh Zumbrun examines the evidence that investors should design a retirement portfolio that lasts more than 30 years. He writes: Demographers and actuaries make the following distinction between life expectancy and longevity: Life expectancy refers to the average number of years someone will live from a given age, whereas longevity refers to how long he or she might live if everything goes well, typically expressed as the probability of living beyond a certain age such as 85, 90 or even 100. A growing body of evidence shows that many people are ignorant of their … [Read more...]
This Goldilocks Is Probably Just a Fairytale
Do you think this will be a "Goldilocks" economy? That's one where it's not too hot, and it's not too cold, it's just right. In The Wall Street Journal, James Mackintosh discusses the potential that investors are currently witnessing a "Goldilocks" economy, writing: The bull case is that inflation was, after all, transitory. The Fed will realize that it doesn’t need to be hawkish and rates will come down without unemployment needing to rise much, if at all. Goldilocks says to go ahead and buy stocks. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has stopped challenging the bulls, twice in the past week … [Read more...]
The Cloud Slowdown Is Hurting Amazon the Most
As growth in sales of cloud services slow down, Amazon is being hurt the most by the situation. Dan Gallagher reports for The Wall Street Journal: The tech slowdown is finally hitting the cloud. The largest player might be paying the biggest price. Amazon AMZN -1.86%decrease; red down pointing triangle.com, Microsoft Corp. MSFT 0.68%increase; green up pointing triangle and Google all reported disappointing news for their respective cloud services businesses in their December quarter reports. For Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet Inc., GOOG -7.49%decrease; red down pointing triangle revenue … [Read more...]
Real Estate “Power Buyers” Suffering Glut of Inventory
Companies created to help buyers purchase homes are now stuck holding the bag on loads of inventory. Will Parker and Nicole Friedman report in The Wall Street Journal: Ribbon Home Inc. had a fast-growing business during the housing boom. The New York City-based startup purchased homes with cash on behalf of buyers. Then it sold the homes to the buyers at the same price, plus a fee, once the buyers got a mortgage. This approach made their clients’ offers more appealing, since sellers often prefer all-cash transactions that can close quickly and are considered more reliable. Ribbon has been … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- …
- 214
- Next Page »