Tag: sep 15 2020

Despite surveys indicating the recession in America is over, new claims for unemployment benefits remained at 884,000 for the week ending 4 September, the same number as the previous week. The number was worse than analysts’ estimates of 850,000. New claims peaked at seven million in March, then began to ease. The pace of re-employment...

AMTRAK PLEADS FOR $5.9 BILLION. The nation’s premiere rail carrier needs the funds now to prevent service cuts, layoffs, and to “stave off bankruptcy,” CEO William Flynn told Congress on 9 September. Amtrak has announced it will lay off 10 percent of its 20,000 workers by the end of this month and is cutting its...

The number of so-called “criticized” commercial real estate loans, those judged to be heading for trouble, rose 144 percent in the second quarter to $26 billion in value among the ten U.S. banks holding the largest volume of those loans, according to a Financial Times report. A criticized loan is a debt rated CCC or...

By August, no more than an estimated 8 to 10 percent of New York’s office workers had returned to their urban towers, 20 percent fewer than analysts had projected in May. Just 25 percent of companies leasing Big Apple office space planned to bring their workers back to town this year, according to a recent...

In late August, 335 storefronts stood empty along New York City’s Great White Way, compared to 188 at the same time in 2017, according to Manhattan borough president Gale Brewer. About a third of the vacancies were along the avenue’s 44-block stretch that includes the Garment District. Foot traffic through the area fell 93 percent...

Again, no surprise to Trends Journal subscribers: about 15,000 apartments were standing empty in the heart of New York City in August, compared to 5,600 a year previous, according to a report by Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers. The number is the largest ever seen since the data began being collected in 2006. In response,...

In March, when the lockdowns began, we continually have warned Trends Journal subscribers of the sharp commercial and apartment rental decline that would follow shelter-in-place rules, which shut down cities and states across the nation and around the world. Shares of the FTSE Nareit Equity Apartments Index, which follows stocks of publicly-traded apartment owners, have...

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving that marks the beginning of Christmas shopping when millions stampede big stores to get big savings on specials, will kick off earlier this year. Calvin Klein, Guess, Kohl’s, Macy’s, and Target are among the retailers planning to stuff their financial Christmas stockings by launching the holiday buying season earlier...

The euro’s value topped $1.20 on 1 September, its highest value since May 2018, and the British pound reached $1.345, its highest value against the dollar this year, as the dollar lost as much as 0.4 percent against six major currencies. Today, the dollar moved up and euro fetched just under $1.18. The stronger dollar...

Broke, busted, out of work, and out of luck, as of July, 52 percent of adults ages 18 to 29 years were living in a parent’s home, a Pew Research survey has found. The proportion is up from 47 percent in February and is the largest proportion of young adults bunking with mom and/or dad...