Ford Motor Co. will increase its investment in electric vehicle (EV) development from $29 billion by 2025 to $30 billion and expects 40 percent of its total sales to come from EVs by 2030, the company announced on 26 May. Ford will reach that 2030 target through sales of its commercial E-Transit vans, the Mustang...
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SOARING IRON ORE DEMAND DRAWS WAVE OF NEW INVESTMENT
Spot prices for iron ore, steel’s main ingredient, have zoomed from around $70 a metric ton a year ago to a record $233.10 in late May under rising demand from China, luring investors to back an array of new mining ventures. Chinese companies are planning one of the world’s biggest iron ore pits, this one...
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RENMINBI HITS THREE-YEAR HIGH AGAINST DOLLAR
China’s renminbi currency traded domestically at 6.4052 to the dollar on 25 May, its strongest performance since June 2018. The high mark came on the same day that China’s CSI stock index rose 3.2 percent to reach its highest value since last July. The renminbi has gained more than 10 percent against the greenback over...
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AMAZON BUYS MGM FOR $8.45 BILLION
Amazon has agreed to buy the MGM movie studio for $6.5 billion in equity and $1.95 billion in debt, Amazon has announced. The deal is Amazon’s second-largest acquisition, the Wall Street Journal reported; the company paid $13.7 billion in 2017 to buy Whole Foods Market, Inc. The purchase will bring vast new content to Amazon’s...
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LUMBER SHORTAGE CRIMPS APARTMENT CONSTRUCTION
As the price of single-family homes leaves more and more prospective buyers behind, the record price of lumber is raising costs and, therefore, rental rates for new flats. Many apartment blocks are made of metal and concrete, but wood still figures prominently in cabinets, trim, flooring, and some structural components. The cost of building materials,...
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RENTS FOR SINGLE-FAMILY HOMES REACH 15-YEAR HIGH
Rental rates in March for single-family homes in the U.S. reached their highest since September 2006, when the housing market crashed at the outset of the Great Recession, data firm CoreLogic reported in a study released 25 May. Average rents climbed 4.3 percent year on year in March, the company said. Rates are steadily rising...
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INVITATION HOMES TO BUY $1 BILLION WORTH OF HOUSES THIS YEAR
Invitation Homes, a subsidiary of the Blackstone Group asset management firm and now among the largest owner of single-family rental homes in the U.S., will add another $1 billion in rental houses to its inventory this year, the company has said. Home prices are at record levels, pricing many prospective buyers out of the market....
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HOUSING SHORTAGE WILL LAST FOR YEARS, GOLDMAN SAYS
The number of U.S. homes for sale is the lowest in almost 50 years, and the imbalance between eager buyers and available houses will last for several years, Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a 2 May research note. About 1.3 million households will form annually through 2024, the bank estimates. The typical age at which...
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EXISTING HOME SALES SLIP IN APRIL
Sales of existing homes in April fell 2.7 percent year-over-year, the third consecutive month of decline, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported. Rising mortgage rates and record home prices, now averaging $341,000, have pushed even more potential buyers out of the market, analysts said. More homes came on the market in April, bringing the...