After beginning a brisk economic rebound following last year’s draconian lockdown, India’s economy has crumbled back into a second drastic shutdown after the COVID virus resurged, creating what is now the worst outbreak on the planet. “The impact of the second wave is that recovery is going to take a big setback,” CEO Mahesh Vyas...
Tag: may 18 2021
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JUNK BONDS JUNKIES ON A HIGH
Financially troubled companies are selling junk bonds at a record clip, the Wall Street Journal reported, with money pouring into the market and finding its way to the riskiest corners in search of high returns. In Europe, investment-grade bonds are largely being bought by the European Central Bank (ECB) in its bond-buying spree to prop...
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MEXICAN RETAILER BUYS U.S. WAREHOUSE GROCERY CHAIN
Bodega Latina Corp., a subsidiary of Mexican retailer Grupo Comercial Chedraui, is buying 250-store Smart & Final, a California-based warehouse grocery store chain from private equity firm Apollo Global Management. The sale’s price was not publicized. Chedraui already owns the California-based El Super chain and the string of 60 Fiesta Mart stores in Texas. The...
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THE “BIGS” KEEPS GOBBLING UP
BlackRock, the world’s richest asset management company, is paying more than $1 billion to buy 66 multifamily affordable housing blocks with 5,800 apartments in San Diego from the Conrad Prebys Foundation. BlackRock will invest more than $100 million to improve the properties, the company said. Blackrock, one of the nation’s largest landlords with about 100,000...
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JOB SLASHING: GOING DIGITAL AND GOING ROBOTICS
U.S. banks will cast off about 10 percent of the industry’s workforce, or about 200,000 jobs, through 2030, Wells Fargo banking analyst Michael Mayo has predicted, according to the Financial Times. “This will be the biggest reduction in U.S. bank headcount in history” as banks automate more and more tasks, Mayo told the FT. The...
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CORPORATIONS TO RETURN TO BUYING THEIR OWN STOCK
Flush with cash after a strong earnings season and confident in the economy’s upward arc, corporations are preparing to resume buying their own stocks, a project that began in earnest after Republicans passed 2017’s corporate tax cut but were paused during the economic shutdown. U.S. companies across a broad spectrum of industries announced buybacks worth...
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MORTGAGE MARKET POISED TO SLOW, INSIDERS SAY
Home buyers are no less eager to buy houses but the mortgage industry likely will be less able to accommodate them, analysts say. Mortgage interest rates are creeping up, leaving some prospective buyers now unable to qualify for loans even though they might have earlier this year. For example, today’s interest rates averaging around 2.97...
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ALMOST 25% OF U.S. ADULTS WORSE OFF IN 2020
Nearly one-quarter of U.S. adults lost ground financially in 2020, the largest proportion since the annual survey began in 2014, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s report, “The Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2020,” released 17 May. About 45 percent of workers who had been laid off were unable to meet their expenses in...
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APRIL RETAIL SALES SUSTAIN MARCH’S GAIN
After increasing 10.7 percent in March from February, retail sales were flat in April, holding March’s gains, although just missing the 0.8-percent nudge that economists had expected but still lofting 43 percent above those in April 2020, according to data firm Affinity Solutions. Sales for the month in bars and restaurants more than doubled over...