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Here You See A Cliff

Two reports from the Wall Street Journal. “The pandemic has raised important questions about the future of New York City. Clues to the answers—or a way to bet on them—can be found daily in the price moves of four real-estate investment trusts that have a majority of their assets in New York and trade on public stock exchanges. They own stakes in dozens of Manhattan towers. The stocks of New York REITs Empire State Realty Trust Inc.; SL Green Realty., which is Manhattan’s largest office landlord; Vornado Realty Trust; and Paramount Group. all took hits of more than 54% during the one-month bear market in the spring, compared with the broader market’s drop of 35%.”

“But unlike the broader market, which has regained three-fourths of its bear-market losses, none of the REITs have recovered one-fourth of theirs, and Empire State has recently traded near its lows. Their stock prices actually began declining four to five years ago. The city’s office rents have leveled off since then partly due to new supply at the Hudson Yards complex.”

“The volume of commercial property sales in New York City cratered in the second quarter because of the new coronavirus pandemic, a trend that will likely accelerate in the last half of the year with painful consequences for city tax collections. The decline in the number of sales occurred at a much faster pace than in the latest recession, when there was a more gradual quarter-to-quarter fall, said Adrian Mercado, B6 Real Estate chief information officer. ‘Here you see a cliff,’ he said. ‘It’s a threat that commercial real estate has never really faced before in this city.'”

The Real Deal on New York. “Over the past decade, Long Island City became the ultimate testing ground for New York City’s new development market. Its proximity to Manhattan and mass transit, the availability of relatively cheap land and a promising waterfront combined to create a wave of for-sale towers, each one upping the next in terms of amenities. What is clear now, however, is that there remains a significant glut of unsold inventory in the shiny Queens neighborhood. Out of the 1,945 condo units completed in Long Island City since 2018, nearly 60 percent are unsold, according to Kael Goodman, CEO of real estate analytics firm Marketproof.”

“The problem, according to some agents who work in the area, is a mismatch between the kind of product buyers want and what’s actually available in the area. ‘If you’re a shoemaker, and 60 percent of your shoes haven’t sold, you’ve either made the wrong shoes, or you’ve made too many,’ he told the New York Times.”

“‘Today, if I could get my money out, I’d consider it,’ Gary Hirshfield, a recent buyer at the project, told the Times.”

From Westfair Online in Connecticut. “The Fairfield home that inspired the Pepperidge Farm baked goods brand had its listing price cut for the second time this year. The 12-room home is on a 4.49-acre parcel within The Ridge gated community, although it is not part of the homeowners association. It was originally listed in April 2018 at $3.49 million and has been on and off the market since October 2018 at $2.9 million. In March, the price was slashed to $2.69 million and it is now listed at $2.45 million.”

From Patch Pennsylvania. “A mansion in the Warminster area built for a celebrity is now on the market for nearly $1 million less than it was originally listed. The 7-bedroom, 6-bathroom mansion, which checks in at 12,586 square feet, has had $200,000 knocked off its price and is now going for $2,495,000. In February, sellers had lopped $700,000 off of their asking price, which originally had been $3,395,000.”

The Real Deal on Florida. “The landlord of a WeWork location in South Beach is looking to evict the embattled co-working giant for what it says is more than $650,000 in unpaid rent. A photo obtained by The Real Deal shows the three-day notice tacked onto the door of the 43,500-square-foot building at 429 Lenox Avenue, which is fully occupied by WeWork. In New York, the co-working company is shutting down its first-ever location as it overhauls its massive real estate portfolio following its failed IPO attempt last year.”

From Evanston Now in Illinois. “Coworking is trying to cope with COVID. The shared-workspace businesses, which first came to Evanston about a decade ago, are facing many of the same troubles that the giant office towers face in downtown Chicago. Workers are working from home, and there’s no telling how long that may continue. Miguel Wong owns CoLab on Chicago Avenue. ‘My honest opinion,’ Wong says, ‘a lot of the trade articles out there are very optimistic, but I can tell you talking to space owners it’s a very different story.’ Wong says his membership, clients who rent space, is half of what it was before the coronavirus.”

“At Creative Coworking on Davis Street, owner Angela Valavanis is seeing the same thing — a lot more empty desks than before the pandemic. ‘It’s a little nerve-wracking now,’ she says.”

From SFist in California. “Sonder, the company that offers corporate-style rentals of furnished units for several months at a time and which controversially took control of a 52-unit at the intersection of Church and Market Streets last summer, is now suing to get out of its lease at the property, citing the pandemic. What seemed like a good idea a year ago — offering rentals of 30 days or more at rates well above market for transient tech workers and the like — no longer seems like a viable business plan, apparently. And Sonder wants out.”

“The case of 2100 Market Street, a seven-story building on the former Home restaurant site that went through multiple design iterations before starting construction in early 2017, was the latest in a decade of angry-making loopholes and debates about short-term rentals and their impact on San Francisco housing availability. As the SF Business Times reports, the SF-based company has filed suit against developer Brian Spiers to get him to honor what it says are its contractual early termination rights for the lease.”

“While the city for years has made efforts to make developers build more affordable units, the Planning Commission was never made aware that this building was set to open outside the regular rental housing market altogether — even though legally Spiers was within his rights to use the units in this way, and so long as the stays were over 30-days this didn’t technically count as a ‘short-term’ rental property subject to the city’s Airbnb-inspired regulations.”

“The market for two- and three- and six-month rentals at super-sized prices seems to have evaporated. And if Sonder gets their way and gets out of this lease, it will mean that the 52 units that were not already designated as affordable, below-market-rate rentals will enter the regular market where rental rates for one-bedroom units in particular have been plummeting in the last month.”

“Interestingly, two weeks ago, Sonder just closed a Series E funding round of $170 million, boosting its valuation to $1.3 billion. This despite the hotel and hospitality industry in general being in dismal shape around the globe — and despite Sonder having to lay off or furlough a third of its staff back in March.”

The Star Advertiser in Hawaii. “Production of a mainly midpriced Kakaako condominium tower has run into trouble because of COVID-19, but the developer believes several planned changes that include pricing more units for less will overcome setbacks. The 42-story project called Ililani held a groundbreaking ceremony in October on a lot fronting Keawe and Halekauwila streets to celebrate construction expected to start in November following high interest from prospective buyers.”

“That interest included 564 applications for a lottery to buy 165 one- and two-­bedroom units reserved for moderate-income households at prices from $312,000 to $657,100. Another 163 units with two bedrooms were priced from $700,500 to $905,500 and represented some of the least pricey market-rate condos to hit Kakaako in three or four years amid several new luxury towers with average prices of $1 million or more.”

“However, fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has shattered Hawaii’s economy and left many prospective buyers unable or hesitant to sign purchase contracts for new homes in the Ililani tower, which would take about two years to build. With about a third of units sold, the project’s lender would not release money for construction. To adjust Ililani LLC, proposes repricing some units.”

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This Post Has 108 Comments

  1. ‘Today, if I could get my money out, I’d consider it’

    But UHS says you can always sell Gary?

  2. ‘two weeks ago, Sonder just closed a Series E funding round of $170 million, boosting its valuation to $1.3 billion. This despite the hotel and hospitality industry in general being in dismal shape around the globe — and despite Sonder having to lay off or furlough a third of its staff back in March’

    Yellen bucks looking for a place to die is a real phenomenon.

    1. This despite the hotel and hospitality industry in general being in dismal shape around the globe

      Our hospitality IT services division had a nasty layoff in June. I wonder how many accounts simply went bye-bye.

  3. ‘That interest included 564 applications for a lottery to buy 165 one- and two-­bedroom units reserved for moderate-income households at prices from $312,000 to $657,100’

    Winner winner chicken dinner!

    1. I guess I’m poor by Hawaiian standards. There’s no way I could afford a 600K apartment.

      1. I remember when having a 600K house usually meant that you were a corporate VP, a big shot lawyer or a specialized surgeon, and not a waiter at the Waikiki Sheraton.

          1. Of course. 600K bought an impressive property, the kind that now fetches several million in some parts. A regular house was much, much less.

          2. Hawaii is a world into its own, especially Maui. $600k still gets a very nice home in 70% of the country.

    2. It’s gotta be richie-rich retirees bidding on these things, what do they care about the local economy?

  5. ‘If you’re a shoemaker, and 60 percent of your shoes haven’t sold, you’ve either made the wrong shoes, or you’ve made too many,’

    Or you are trying to sell the shoes for a price above market value…

    1. ‘If you’re a shoemaker

      Does anyone actually make shoes in a non third world factory sweatshop setting anymore? We have a couple of cobblers in town, who repair higher priced shoes. But I doubt they’ve ever made a whole shoe from scratch, though I’m sure they could.

      2. Belleville Boots, for one. I have a few pairs. I’ve had a few pairs of Matterhorns over the years, too. All made in the USA.

  6. Crater Haiku:

    Here you see a cliff,
    And there you see a crater.
    Cliff, meet the crater.

  8. “The landlord of a WeWork location in South Beach is looking to evict the embattled co-working giant for what it says is more than $650,000 in unpaid rent.”

    WeSquat?

      1. All “affordable housing” schemes are Democrat patronage and graft rackets. Collectively, they add up to a bigger scam than WeWork or luxury student housing.

  9. Stuff around me still seems to go super fast if it’s below $900K or so. The stuff that is really overpriced sits, like $700K for new construction townhouses and the like. But SFH? $750K for 3 bed crapshacks are moving.

    Trolling reddit /r/realestate it looks like quite a few other markets are super hot in the low end.

    I just had a run of decals submitted that say overpriced and bubble. Going to add a few to the real estate signs, and try to get them in hands of others that are willing to do so as well.

  10. Check out my logic:

    1) The stock market climbs a wall of worry. Therefore a higher level of investor fear is a bullish indicator for the stock market.

    2) A lower level of investor fear is consistent with a belief among investors that the market will rise. Therefore a lower level of investor fear is a bullish indicator for the stock market.

    3) All signs point to the inevitable conclusion that the stock market can only go up.

    1. The Financial Times
      Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
      Markets volatility
      US volatility indices show persistent investor ‘fear’ after rally
      Gauges of expected market moves remain elevated even after post-crash recovery
      Colby Smith and Eric Platt in New York an hour ago

      Investors are betting on big swings in US stock prices, even as benchmark equity indices push steadily higher and darlings like Tesla and Amazon surge to new records.

      The Cboe’s Vix index of equity market volatility, often referred to as Wall Street’s fear gauge, remains 41 per cent above its historic average at nearly 28. Another longer-term measure of US stock volatility is 50 per cent above its long-term average, according to the Cboe.

      The indices are well below the highs they struck during the sharp market falls at the depths of the coronavirus crisis earlier this year. But the persistently lofty levels indicate investors are still bracing for potential shake-ups in the US benchmark S&P 500 equity index, reflecting unease over the scale of the market recovery since March.

      “Today’s level for the Vix is perfectly indicative of how uncertain this situation is,” said Randy Frederick, vice-president of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab. “One of the challenges of this environment is that we are all basically trying to fit historical models and patterns [on to] today’s scenario,” he added. “The reality is the scenario today is unique.”
      …

      1. TVIX, a bet on market volatility, just got delisted. The insiders know what’s coming and after getting badly burned when TVIX rocketed from $38 to over $1000 back in March, are not going to allow the proles to bet against their rigged markets with a 2X bet on the VIX.

    2. The Wall Street-Federal Reserve Looting Syndicate has to keep its Ponzi markets levitated until late September/early October, when they can engineer yet another Great Muppet Reaping as part of the oligarchy’s grand plan to send off Trump and replace him with pliant stooge Joe Biden and globalist neocon Susan Rice. President Trump has embraced what Candidate Trump called Yellen’s “Big Fat Bubble” as his own, so he’s going to own the crash, too.

      1. President Trump has embraced what Candidate Trump called Yellen’s “Big Fat Bubble” as his own, so he’s going to own the crash, too.

        “GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump told CNBC on Monday the Federal Reserve is doing what President Barack Obama wants by keeping interest rates low.

        Fed Chair Janet Yellen and central bank policymakers are very political, and Yellen should be “ashamed” of what she’s doing to the country, Trump said, adding the Fed is not even close to being independent.

        By keeping interest rates low, the Fed has created a “false stock market,” ”

        https://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/12/trump-says-fed-chief-yellen-should-be-ashamed.html

  11. https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/ice-international-students-university-online/2020/07/07/id/976003/

    Insult to injury for the student housing real estate market. Foreign students cannot remain in country for on-line only classes. San Diego State is going on-line only. Don’t know about UCSD. Will we even notice when all the professors are replaced by AI robots who don’t collect salaries or need tenure? Just stay at home and be taught everything by a Microsoft bot. The NWO educational end game.

    1. It looked like Harvard just announced online only next year if I understood the story correctly. So for these colleges where the network is worth more than the classes, how does this work? Especially for the foreign students if they have to do the class online from Shanghai? In the meantime how do the inner circle types meet each other? What will happen to us without Skull and Bones to lead us?

      1. “…In the meantime how do the inner circle types meet each other? What will happen to us without Skull and Bones to lead us?..”

        Even worse, even more central to student life, football games and wild parties. Is there any other reason to go to college?

        1. And no football due to the covids means a serious hit to the bottom line – many schools will have to start choppin’. Diversity coordinators? Gone! Inclusion specialist? Buh-bye. And who exactly gets those football scholarships? Dindu attendance will drop to 0 if theres no ball to chase after – they aint qualifying on their academics. And the poor, poor coaches will have their multimillion dollar salaries cut – better put that mansion up for sale now boys!

          Whats not to love?!?

          1. “…Whats not to love?!?…”

            Coach, do ‘ya mean I’m gunna’ have to learn somethin’?

            That’s just not fair! All my friends can hardly wait to watch me on network TV and show up in the celebrity magazines dating hot chicks!

      2. Maybe the reasoning is that it’s only for a year. You still have three years to make your connections. I wonder how the STEM grad students are doing in all this. STEM grad students spend most of their time in a lab, either teaching undergrads or doing their own research.

          2. Now that SAT scores no longer are a consideration in college admissions, the demand for math tutoring services may have taken a hit.

      3. “What will happen to us without Skull and Bones to lead us?”

        I’m afraid their storied homoerotic hijinks are at an end.

        1. I remember some of those stories. And here I thought they were gathering with flashlights to read deep philosophy and expound on the human condition, like in Dead Poets Society. Meh.

          1. And now Robin Williams is literally a member of the society portrayed in the movie. So sad.

    2. Will probably end up in court eventually landing in the 9th circuit which will rule in favor of foreign students and then to SCOTUS. By that time the academic year will be over and it will be a moot point.

    3. “Insult to injury for the student housing real estate market.”

      Foreign student demand is toast with an online-only course format?

      Check.

      Domestic student demand is toast with an online-only course format?

      Check.

      Ergo a fork has been stuck in the student housing bubble.

  12. The city’s office rents have leveled off since then partly due to new supply at the Hudson Yards complex.”

    No MSM outlet can bring itself to mention the elephant in the room: NYC is in a terminal spiral into lawlessness and Gimme Dats running amok, with an incompetent De Blasio administration impotent to do anything about it.

    1. When I was a kid on Long Island in the 70s I heard the same story. Somehow New York City survived.

      1. Somehow New York City survived.

        When it got so bad they finally held their noses and voted for law and order?

      2. Did the 70s have filmed executions on the streets like what happened yesterday? Did the 70s have a political party actively calling for the end of police? Did the 70s have a mayor openly advocating for rioters, including his own daughter? Did the 70s have looting and rioting for months on end with no consequences for the participants? Did the 70s get rid of bail like NY just did? Did the 70s have the ability to trade stocks from anywhere in the world making the need to physically be in NYC obsolete?

    2. I worry about my good friend and his young family who live in Hell’s Kitchen . . . until I see their Facebook posts.

  13. Out of the 1,945 condo units completed in Long Island City since 2018, nearly 60 percent are unsold, according to Kael Goodman, CEO of real estate analytics firm Marketproof.”

    Is that a lot?

  14. In March, the price was slashed to $2.69 million and it is now listed at $2.45 million.”

    Okay, some slashin’ in March was a good start, but now it’s time to bring out the saw.

  15. “The market for two- and three- and six-month rentals at super-sized prices seems to have evaporated.”

    The biggest problem here is the “super-sized prices” part. Pre-virus, in major cities there was a need for furnished accommodation with this 2-11 month lease period, but only if prices were closer to that of an apartment rental than a nightly hotel. For example it was common in London to find furnished apartments (usually from small landlords) available for a 2-11 month lease through normal estate agents just like other apartments (not Airbnb-style illegal hotel weekend party rentals.)

    A corporate version of this would have been practical. But the new players filling this space were at hotel prices – ie, that building on Sunset in LA that was (illegally) offering rental apts for 1 night or 1 month+ at $9-12k per month, the same as a hotel room would be, which is insane. But of course they paid too much for the land. (See also the Palihouse hotel/extended-stay chain – good idea with the same problem of exorbitant prices.)

  17. Oh dear. Amy Cooper, the Central Park Karen who called police and falsely claimed a black man was threatening her life, has now been formally charged with filing a false report. While the MSM is playing up the rayciss angle, predictably, this is far from the first time a Karen has lied to get a man in trouble because her emotions got the better of her. I hope she gets to spend some quality time in jail to reflect on how to become a better human being and the consequences of being a liar. And I hope a collective shudder goes through Karen Nation as these harpies realize they need to get their hysteria and vindictiveness in check.

    https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/manhattan/ny-amy-cooper-charges-manhattan-20200706-olcbbhusvvcurmlz6dgtn5q37m-story.html

    1. And I hope a collective shudder goes through Karen Nation as these harpies realize they need to get their hysteria and vindictiveness in check.

      Nice thought. But logic and learning from other’s mistakes doesn’t seem to be their strong suit.

      1. They get into rage lock, just like road rage. All reason departs, and they are just a frothing ball of hate for a little while.

    1. Old news. More testing + younger positives + steroids instead of ventilators = lower death rate.

      1. More like steady news than old news. But i don’t disagree. Still, i have the feeling you didn’t actually take the time to look at the chart… Did you?

      2. For some reason, the overall death rate went up too. Either parkour has become popular again, or someone’s fudging the covid mortality numbers.

  19. boots

    Was just checking my zip code. Main takeaway is that the nabe is dead dead dead. No crater, but no change from last fall. The same ol’ zombies are up for auction and no one is buying, not at the auction prices. One house is fully reno’d per Minimalist Millenial Gray standards, but it’s priced fully $100K above comps. It will sit. Other foreclosures need $30K of work and no one’s taking the bait. Dead dead dead. I wonder how many of them are on foreclosure forbearance? Plus my nabe has a lot of rental houses, those LLs must be hurting too.

    1. My local bellwether is Manitou Springs, a mountain town (pop. 5,000) outside Colorado Springs. In 2008, when the inventory rose to over 100, it meant the bubble was bursting. Now it’s at 94, and keeps rising as the greedheads are clinging to their wish prices while days on market stretches into weeks and months. Now a bunch of “pending” or “contingent” stickers have been slapped on none-selling shacks, though I suspect that’s a stupid realtor trick.

      https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Manitou-Springs_CO

    2. My wife, a millennial loves her some millennial gray walls. I had never heard that term before reading it here. Always makes me chuckle.

  20. Gold broke the $1,800 barrier today, hitting 11 year highs, despite the frantic efforts of the Fed and its bullion bank accomplices to suppress the prices through their usual market-rigging and formerly illegal tricks like naked shorting. As the Fed hurtles us down the road to Weimar 2.0, the rush to exchange FedBux backed by nothing for physical precious metals is going to turn into a stampede. Ask the people of Lebanon if they wish they would’ve bought gold and silver before their central bank and corrupt elites destroyed the purchasing power of the Lebanese pound.

  21. Only the ultra woke will want to live in NYC in the future. Normies put up with the insane cost of living and the SJW stupidity because, well it’s New York. But now all that makes New York, New York no longer exists. No bars, no clubs, No crowds. You want to risk catching the Wuhan on the subway? I sure as hell wouldn’t risk it. So what’s left? Paying $4k a month for an apartment the size of a closet. Step back for a bit and when you look at it this way it becomes apparent living there is stupid given work from home is now a viable option to millions of people. Hence the migration out. And the same goes for San Francisco.

    I spent a lot of time in NYC working over the years. Loved it. Would never want to live there though. I got the best of both worlds, got to spend time there, with someone else paying for it.

    1. I got the best of both worlds, got to spend time there, with someone else paying for it.

      That’s how I feel about Shanghai. If you can live there on the full expat package it’s an amazing place. I miss it but it feels like covid may have put the final nail in the coffin of what it used to mean for an American to live there. Glad I got to be there for months in 2014 when everything was still full speed ahead. It was like nothing I’d ever seen.

    2. I’ve been to New York a few times. It’s exciting for about 24 hours, tiring after 48 hours, and after 72 I’m out of there. Strangely I’m not that way about inner-city DC (the good parts). I think it’s because DC has more parks and trees, and a building height limit.

      1. You either love it and never want to leave, get stuck in it and can never leave, or visit it occasionally but don’t stick around for too long.

      2. I was surprised how much forested land there is in the DC area, and how many bike trails. Went out for an interview thinking it’d be an urban hellhole, but it’s actually a pretty nice, if not overly impressive, city and surrounding area. Aside from the statues and stuff, I wouldn’t take it for a capital city.

        1. if not overly impressive, city and surrounding area. Aside from the statues and stuff, I wouldn’t take it for a capital city

          My impression as well. I expected Coruscant/Trantor to be more impressive.

  22. The number of vehicles “for sale by owner” on Craigslist has dropped. Those payment moratoriums are working their magic.

    1. Same magic applies to real estate that might otherwise be offered for rent or for sale.

    3. Didn’t realize that extended to cars. Maybe I should have got that 50k pickup with the zero interest loan….

  24. Have you lost faith that the virus will mysteriously disappear by midsummer, opening the door to a nearterm V-shaped recovery?

    1. The Financial Times
      Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
      FT-Peterson US Economic Monitor
      US voters more pessimistic on chances of economic rebound
      FT-Peterson poll shows rising fears pandemic will get worse
      Likely voters in the US west and south, where states such as Florida have seen a spike in coronavirus cases, have become particularly pessimistic
      © Lynne Sladky/AP
      Lauren Fedor in Washington and Christine Zhang in New York yesterday

      Americans have become more pessimistic about the prospects for a quick pandemic recovery, especially in the states of the US south and west where coronavirus cases have spiked, according to a new poll for the Financial Times.

      Almost half of likely voters, about 49 per cent, said they believed the outbreak would get worse in their community over the next month, a sharp increase from the 35 per cent who said the pandemic would worsen when asked a month ago. Only 24 per cent said they believed it would improve.

      At the same time, the monthly survey of likely voters for the FT and the Peter G Peterson Foundation found that the share of Americans who believed the US economy would “fully recover” in a year dropped from 42 per cent to 37 per cent. Those saying a recovery would take a year or more rose from 58 per cent to 63 per cent.

      The FT-Peterson poll, conducted at the end of June, showed the spike in pessimism was particularly pronounced in the south and west, which have experienced a sharp increase in coronavirus cases after reopening their economies in May.

      In the south, 56 per cent of likely voters said coronavirus would get worse in their community in the next month, as did 59 per cent in the west, compared with just 29 per cent in the north-east, which bore the brunt of the early stages of the US outbreak but has largely been spared in the more recent spike.
      …

  25. Would it be cheaper for the Fed to keep pumping in trillions in Unlimited Quarantinive Easing for month after month, or just
    send around real face masks to all U.S. citizens and require their use in public?

      1. Masks are now compulsory in Washington state since yesterday, Tuesday. Looks like Walmart already had a public freakout, bellicose expletives, physical assault, arrested, etc., rather than simply don a $0.75 mask. I’m not sure I’d like one of kids or wife to get into a fender bender with this kind of anti-social hothead.

    2. Would it be cheaper for the Fed to keep pumping in trillions

      The more they pump, the more EXPENSIVE it gets in the long run. They are getting the opposite result they hope for.

      2. aren’t we just dumping all this debt on your kids and grand-kids? they will have to pay 50% taxes and live home with you till they are 30 or 35 and will have to inherit your house

    3. “Would it be cheaper for the Fed to keep pumping in trillions in Unlimited Quarantinive Easing for month after month”

      Yet prices of everything continue to fall.

  26. What NYC needs is cheaper real estate. Something closer to the U.S. average, if slightly higher.

    To get there, lots of those large scale real estate companies will have to go Chapter 11. They keep describing the solution as a problem.

    1. Wouldn’t the collapse of a few systematically risky firms suffice to bring NYC real estate prices back in line with the common man’s budget?

      Not to suggest that such a realignment of prices with the means to pay them is in the central planners’ plans…

  27. Are surging virus shares hitting your stock share appetite with a case of dyspepsia?

    1. Market Movers
      July 8, 2020 / 12:42 AM / Updated 6 hours ago
      S.Korean shares end lower as surging virus cases hit risk appetite

      * KOSPI falls, foreigners net sellers

      * Korean won strengthens versus U.S. dollar

      * South Korea benchmark bond yield falls

      * For the midday report, please click

      SEOUL, July 8 (Reuters) – Round-up of South Korean financial markets:

      ** South Korean shares fell on Wednesday due to subdued risk appetite, as surging coronavirus cases in the United States and around the world dented hopes of a quicker global economic recovery. The won gained, while the benchmark bond yield fell.

      ** The Seoul stock market’s main KOSPI closed down 5.29 points, or 0.24%, at 2,158.88.

      ** The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States pushed past 3 million on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, roughly equal to the population of Nevada, stoking fears that hospitals will be overwhelmed.

      ** A surge in infections that threatens to pinch consumer spending and job gains just as some stimulus programs are due to expire has U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers worried, with at least one pledging more support from the central bank.
      …

  28. Who needs bricks and sticks when Amazon is there to deliver merchandise to your doorstep, COVID-free?

    1. The Financial Times
      Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
      US retail
      US retail rebound falters as virus infections surge
      Figures spur concerns that consumer spending will remain weak for a long period
      Footfall at US malls, such as this one in Tucson, Arizona, rebounded in May and early June but has since slipped back
      © Bloomberg
      Alistair Gray 5 hours ago

      US retailers’ rebound from the coronavirus shutdown is starting to flatline as infection rates jump in swaths of the country, according to executives and industry data, intensifying concerns that consumer spending will remain weak for a protracted period and leave discretionary store chains unable to cope.

      After an initial jump in footfall as lockdowns were lifted, the latest figures show that more shoppers are shying away from reopened malls, especially in states such as Texas that had helped drive the initial recovery.

      In the latest sign that alarm is growing in boardrooms over the pandemic’s spread in the south and west of the country, Levi Strauss’s chief executive Chip Bergh said the jeans retailer was considering closing dozens of US stores that it had only recently reopened.
      …

  30. Would it be smart diversification to put half your stock market HODLings in the shares of one company that you personally think will forevermore outperform all others?

  31. It seems Mr Market is having difficulty keeping it up today. Need more liquidity viagra?

    1. Not really, I mean it’s up almost 60 points. It’s not a “market” anymore, it’s a sham.

  33. The real problem is a fake attempt to create wealth or value by the investment world , which needs to do it in a fast manner so constant churning or flipping takes place.

    So, real estate, which was simply a need that use to tract with wages ,becomes the means to create a false investment used to create false wealth, until it crashes.

    Heath care is a price fixing monopoly not based on demand or risk but based on a set amount of money that industry wants each year by a Commie pay scale of Charging based on income.

    Higher education skyrocketed in price simply because Gov. was willing to give and back loans at the outrageous prices. When the gov interferes in the market than it creates greater profits than would take place.
    Gov backing loans for real estate market also creates price and demand inflation.

    Government allowing insourcing and outsourcing of jobs and ilegal immigration created unfair wage scale for cost of living in America.
    Basically we have a Oligarchy that is in bed with the Government, under Globalism and monopolies .to steal wages and wealth from the unprotected working private sector in USA.
    Then you have nothing but false narratives like racism to divert from this takeover from the these big money powers.
    I have traced it to about 1995 when the Politicians sold out the USA and than just kept building on that.
    So, the majority of Citizen’s can’t seem to get anything they vote for while the powers that be pollute discussion with their false narratives, fake news, and price fixing monopolies in control of everything.
    Fake everything and class warfare as a result. It at a point where it has made us vunerable to a Communist takeover, and lost of all freedom. The Commies are attacking the Statues and all Western Civilization and USA history as a result of the takeover of the USA economic system by the Globalist, who love the rioters diverting from their looting. Capitalism isn’t really operative today, more like rigged markets,
    It’s outrageous what happened .

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