Russia’s $186-billion sovereign wealth fund will reduce its dollar holdings from $40 billion to zero this month, finance minister Anton Siluanov announced last week at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg. The fund also will cut its stash of British pounds from 10 percent of the fund’s portfolio to 5 percent, and 40 percent...
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FOOD PRICES HIT 10-YEAR HIGH, RAISING CONCERN FOR POORER NATIONS
Food prices around the globe increased by 40 percent in May, which raises concern for poor countries and their access to staple goods. The Financial Times, citing the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ (UNFAO) monthly food price index, reported that prices saw their largest increase since 2011. On 9 February, the Trends...
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BUSINESS TRAVEL REBOUND?
An executive at American Airlines told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month that 47 of the airline’s 50 largest business accounts said they plan to start flying again after over a year of lockdowns and flight advisories. The report said some investment bankers have been traveling to see clients, and sales representatives have been trying to...
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VACATIONERS TAKING TO THE SKIES
Almost two million travelers passed through U.S. airport security gates on 28 May, the start of the Memorial Day weekend, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration reported, the largest one-day total since March 2020. In all, 7.1 million people flew U.S. routes that weekend, more than five times the number a year earlier but well below...
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MORE MANHATTAN OFFICE SPACE GOES VACANT
In May, for the 12th consecutive month, the amount of Manhattan office space available to lease has edged up and now stands at 17 percent of the island’s total office square footage, Bloomberg reported. At the same time, new leases signed increased by 8 percent and rents bumped up to $73.26 per square foot, a...
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ASSET MANAGER BECOMES DROPBOX’S LARGEST SHAREHOLDER
New York equity firm Elliot Management Corp., with $40 billion under management, has bought a significant number of shares of cloud-based Dropbox and told Dropbox that Eliot is now its second-largest shareholder after Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, insiders told the Wall Street Journal. If true, that would mean Elliot now owns more than 10 percent...
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START-UP TURNS SMALL INVESTORS INTO LANDLORDS
Fundrise, a new fund that has just secured $300 million in credit from Goldman Sachs, is putting investors with as little as $500 to spend into the real estate business. The overheated, overpriced housing market is shutting out more and more buyers who want to live in single-family homes with yards, especially now that more...
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HOMEOWNERS CASH IN ALMOST $50 BILLION IN HOME EQUITY
U.S. homeowners took $49.6 billion in equity from their homes during the first quarter of this year, according to data from the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation reported by the Wall Street Journal. The total cashed out was the most since 2007, but short of the $84 billion owners extracted from their homes in 2006,...
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HOMEOWNERS TRAPPED IN PLACE BY HIGH PRICES
Many U.S. homeowners could sell their houses at a hefty profit but are unwilling to do so if it means entering the frenzied housing market, engaging in bidding wars, and paying top dollar for a new home, the Wall Street Journal reported. As a result, people are living in their current homes longer than usual,...
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USED CAR PRICES SKYROCKET
The average price of used cars and trucks in the U.S. leaped 10 percent from March to April and is up 21 percent over the past 12 months, according to the Financial Times. This has become a central engine of the country’s accelerating pace of inflation. “Prices are unquestionably higher than they’ve ever been and...