Tag: sep 09 2020

HILTON SHUTTERS TIMES SQUARE HOTEL. The hotel chain will close its Times Square inn for the foreseeable future next month and lay off 200 workers, the company has told New York state’s labor department. However, the company said the announcement “was not intended to imply that there is a permanent closure.” UNITED AIRLINES TO CUT...

HALF OF CANADIANS ARE BROKE. Forty-nine percent of Canadians believe they are on the brink of insolvency, according to the latest MNP Consumer Debt Index published earlier this month. Since December, the number of Canadians worried about their debt level has jumped 10 points to 46 percent, the highest number since 2017 when the data...

Travel’s weak rebound since the economic shutdown began to ease has left the hotel industry “on the brink of collapse,” the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) has warned. The numbers are grim: Just 33 percent of Americans report having traveled overnight for pleasure since March and only 38 percent are likely to do so...

It was a trend we were the first to forecast in March: people leaving densely populated cities to escape the coronavirus and fear of rising crime rates. Almost half of San Francisco-area dwellers able to work from home would like to leave the Bay Area, according to poll by Zapier, a tech company supporting remote...

As many as 250 U.S. shopping malls, about 25 percent, are likely to close in the next five years, according to a study by Coresight Research. Of America’s 1,000 malls, about 380 are rated C- or D-, meaning they bring in less than $300 in yearly sales per square foot of space. Malls rated C...

Through an executive order, the Trump administration has halted evictions through the end of this year. Allowing people to remain in their homes will promote self-isolation and social distancing to continue and help contain the COVID virus, said the CDC, which announced the ban on 2 September. The administration also feared a rising tide of...

Fees and commissions from investors desperate to cash out of stocks when the shutdown arrived, then just as desperate to buy back stocks when the markets rallied, added 32 percent to investment banks’ revenues in the first six months of this year, according to data compiled by Coalition, a financial industry research firm. The Fed’s...

The economic crisis has left banks with slashed profits, record-thin margins, and more cash than they can find things to do with. Customers have poured money into savings accounts in record volumes during the economic crisis and banks reaped additional revenue from late fees on credit cards, mortgages, and other loans. These windfalls have given...

MGM Resorts International plans to fire 18,000 workers, about a quarter of its employees, as travelers are no longer flocking to its casinos. Stanley Black & Decker recently told a cohort of furloughed employees they will not be brought back. Yelp and the Cheesecake Factory also are among companies that are permanently trimming their labor...

The U.S. imported $231.7 billion worth of goods and services in July, an 18.9-percent increase from June, the commerce department reported. The monthly trade deficit in merchandise alone for the month was the largest on record. Exports in the same month grew 8.1 percent to $168.1 billion, leaving the U.S. with a $63.6 billion trade...