Bloomberg (April 8)
“Almost $1.5 trillion of US commercial real estate debt comes due for repayment before the end of 2025. The big question facing those borrowers is who’s going to lend to them?” Morgan Stanley has estimated “office and retail property valuations could fall as much as 40% from peak to trough, increasing the risk of defaults.” Regional banks are now skittish about lending and “the wall of debt is set to get worse before it gets better.”
Tags: $1.5 trillion, 2025, Borrowers, Commercial real estate, Debt, Defaults, Morgan Stanley, Office, Peak, Regional banks, Repayment, Risk, Skittish, Trough, U.S., Valuations
Forbes (April 8)
“Job cuts are approaching levels not seen since the pandemic began in 2020, as major cuts in the technology and financial industries are starting to show their impact on the economy and soften the labor market.”
Tags: 2020, Economy, Financial industry, Impact, Job cuts, Labor market, Pandemic, Technology
Institutional Investor (April 6)
“Venture capital activity has all but dried up for the hedge funds (and/or their VC arms) that used to be among the most active in the private market for tech, internet, and new economy companies.”
Tags: Active, Dried up, Hedge funds, Internet, New economy, Private market, Tech, Venture-capital
New York Times (April 5)
“With the release of the indictment and accompanying statement of facts, we can now say that there’s nothing novel or weak about this case…. Whatever happens next, one thing is clear: Mr. Trump cannot persuasively argue he is being singled out for some unprecedented theory of prosecution. He is being treated as any other New Yorker would be with similar evidence against him.”
Tags: Evidence, Indictment, New Yorker, Novel, Prosecution, Singled out, Statement of facts, Trump, Unprecedented, Weak
Seeking Alpha (April 5)
“Investors were taken by surprise on April 2nd when news broke that OPEC+…announced unexpected cuts in output. This move came even in spite of a previously rosy forecast for the supply and demand balance that OPEC made public…. Investors would be wise to see this as a bullish development for any company that benefits from higher oil prices. But in particular, the exploration and production companies could be very appealing to consider at this time.”
Tags: Appealing, Bullish, Demand, Exploration, Forecast, Investors, Oil prices, OPEC, Output, Production, Supply, Surprise, Unexpected
Fortune (April 4)
“After the banking crisis, could the next domino be all those empty office buildings in your downtown? Investors and economists are sounding the alarm about the commercial real estate market, seeing trouble ahead with refinancing. This sector has been hit hard for years now with the shift to remote work bringing about rising vacancy rates and falling property values.”
Tags: Alarm, Banking crisis, Commercial real estate, Domino, Downtown, Economists, Empty, Investors, Market, Office buildings, Refinancing, Remote work, Sector, Trouble, Vacancy rates
Washington Post (April 4)
“Finland has spent the 105 years since its independence tiptoeing alongside Russia, with which it has roughly 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) of border.” The cornerstone of Finnish foreign policy remained “maintaining good relations with Russia…. until last year,” when “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its demands to stop NATO expansion” shifted public opinion overwhelmingly in favor of NATO accession, which was achieved today.
Tags: Accession, Cornerstone, Demands, Finland, Foreign policy, Independence, Invasion, NATO expansion, Public opinion, Russia, Ukraine
Wall Street Journal (April 3)
“For decades, American cities have had a parking problem: too much of it. Countless residential parking spots go unused, and many downtown garages sit half empty. Ride-sharing and the rise of remote work during the pandemic have aggravated the trend.” In response, “cities are shrinking the number of spaces, freeing up the land for other uses, with far-reaching consequences.”
Tags: Aggravated, Cities, Consequences, Downtown, Empty, Garages, Pandemic, Parking spots, Problem, Remote work, Ride-sharing, Trend, U.S., Unused
Bloomberg (April 1)
“Rarely has the consensus been more uniformly bearish than it is now. Investors are sitting with the lowest allocation to US stocks in almost two decades.” But this extreme is creating a phenomena not seen “during any bear market in the past four decades.” Since “everyone’s leaning one way, big swings are apt to break out in the other…. Small gains can snowball when the worry is missing out on the next big rally.” As a result, “the S&P 500 just finished the first three months of the year up 7%, rounding out back-to-back quarterly gains.”
Tags: Allocation, Bear market, Bearish, Big swings, Consensus, Extreme, Investors, Rally, S&P 500, Small gains, Snowball, Stocks, U.S.
New York Times (March 31)
“For the first time in American history, a grand jury has indicted a former president of the United States.” Former President Trump “spent years… ignoring democratic and legal norms and precedents, trying to bend the Justice Department and the judiciary to his whims and behaving as if rules didn’t apply to him.” His indictment shows the rules do apply and, with it, these “institutions have proved to be strong enough to hold him accountable for that harm.”
Tags: Accountable, Democratic, Grand jury, History, Indicted, Institutions, Judiciary, Justice Department, Legal norms, Precedents, President, Rules, Strong, Trump, U.S., Whims
