Category: TRENDS ON THE U.S. ECONOMIC FRONT

In June, July, and August, initial public stock offerings (IPOs) could raise more than $40 billion, according to bankers contacted by the Wall Street Journal. That amount would far surpass 2020’s record $32 billion for the same three-month span, according to data from monitoring firm Dealogic. Through 8 June, IPOs have already raised $63 billion...

When retailers came up short in paying their rents in 2020, some landlords allowed their tenants to pay a percentage of their sales as rent instead of a fixed dollar amount. Now that the economy is reviving, that unusual lease arrangement is continuing in many cases. Percentage-of-sales leases are particularly popular in shopping centers, especially...

Homes for sale draw dozens of bids within days. Many homes sell for $20,000 or more above their asking prices. Bidders waive inspections and appraisals that would fix a realistic price.   The U.S. housing market is gripped by irrational exuberance (see FRENZIED HOUSING MARKET BECOMES EVEN MORE INTENSE) with the average home price reaching a...

A Florida real estate agent received 36 offers on a home recently. Among the offers, 13 were for more than the asking price, 12 were at least $15,000 above the asking price, six waived home inspections, four offered to rent the house back to the current owners until they moved, and 11 agreed that even...

In the most recent week, 412,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed, the U.S. labor department reported, breaking a six-week streak of steady declines and missing the median estimate of 370,000 among economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Continuing claims rose to 3.52 million, also failing to meet economists’ estimate, which had called for 3.43 million...

As we reported today, oil prices remain near their yearly high and Global Research raised its Brent crude price forecasts for this year and next, saying that tighter oil supply and recovering demand could push oil briefly to $100 per barrel in 2022. Thus, Wall Street’s betting on crude oil’s future. With billions being invested...

At their mid-June policy meeting, officials of the U.S. Federal Reserve indicated that they are considering raising their benchmark interest rate from its current 0.25 percent, set in March 2020, to as much as 0.6 percent some time in 2023. Thirteen of eighteen officials present at the meeting signaled they expected to vote to raise...

MARKETS ROILED BY FED’S CHANGING STANCE U.S. equity markets slid down through last week as the Wall Street Gang anticipated, then digested, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s signal that it might slow down its flow of ultra-cheap money pumping scheme that has artificially inflated equites and the economy by raising interest rates and slowing down its...

Washington Prime Group, which owns more than 100 retail malls across the U.S., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 13 June, a “necessary” move after the economic shutdown “created significant challenges” and left almost $1 billion in debts, the company said, as tenants closed stores and negotiated lower rents. The property owner has secured $100...

Ohio-based Lordstown Motors, founded in 2018 intending to be the maker of America’s first all-electric commercial pickup truck, lacks the necessary cash to begin commercial production and may go out of business within the next 12 months, the company announced on 8 June. “The company believes its current level of cash and cash equivalents are...