Archive for Uncategorized
The dollar bull market will eventually break something
Posted by: | CommentsWith the Fed having raised interest rates for the second time in ten years, in an environment in which US growth looks pretty good, we should expect more hikes to come. The question is whether the economy can withstand the hikes and what they would mean for markets. I have five asset classes to watch: Treasuries, the US Dollar, Emerging Markets, the Japanese Yen, and Gold.
Dealbreaker 2016: The Year In Bill Ackman
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It was the best of times: The FTC called Herbalife a pyramid scheme without actually using those words. The Herbalife movie. Burritos. Fancy new Hell’s Kitchen digs.
But mostly, for Bill Ackman, Pershing Square Asset Management and its investors, it was the worst of times: The FTC called Herbalife a pyramid scheme without actually using those words. Valeant. Swingeing losses (mostly Valeant-related). Valeant. Having to skip the Sohn Conference (because of Valeant). Valeant. Charlie Munger throwing shade (about Valeant). Valeant. The on-and-off friendship with Carl Icahn going decidedly off once again. Valeant. Divorce. Valeant. Valeant. Valeant…
Wall Street’s Trump Bonanza Won’t Stop Job Cuts at Banks in ’17
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Even if profits surge, analysts say banks will keep automating
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‘It’s hard for me to imagine a job expansion in finance’
Bank stocks are on a tear after Donald Trump’s victory drove up expectations for the industry’s profits. Here’s the catch for many people working there: Holding onto their jobs won’t be any easier.
While lower taxes, higher interest rates and lighter regulation under Trump could help boost U.S. banks’ earnings by a median 22 percent in 2018, firms will keep chipping away at costs by using technology to replace traders and branches, analysts at Morgan Stanley said this month. And though rising rates may fatten lenders’ profit margins, they can slow demand for new mortgages and corporate debt issuance. Again, that means fewer staff needed…
China Central Bank Adviser Calls for 6%-7% Growth Target Range
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Huang Yiping speaks in interview with Xinhua News Agency
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The 6.5% target is just an average rate, economist says
China should set a more flexible 2017 economic growth target to give policy makers more room to enact reform, according to Huang Yiping, an adviser to the People’s Bank of China.
He proposed a range of 6 percent to 7 percent for this year, compared with the 6.5 percent to 7 percent objective in 2016, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Last year’s target, the first range in two decades, was down from 7 percent for 2015.
Hedge Funds Bet Oil Rally to Extend Into 2017 as Output Cuts Hit
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Money managers’ net-long position is triple end-2015: CFTC
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OPEC, non-OPEC crude production reductions start in January
Investors are showing no sign of turning their backs on oil heading into 2017.
Money managers’ wagers on rising West Texas Intermediate crude prices are triple what they were at the end of 2015, and are the highest since the start of the crude market crash 2 1/2 years ago. Crude futures settled at the highest in almost 18 months on Dec. 28, with investors now eyeing the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers to see who complies with agreed output cuts…
The last year homes were this unaffordable to American families was back in 2008. If you remember in 2008 the market was in full on implosion mode. Of course that is now a distant memory and those 7,000,000+ foreclosures are simply a distant nightmare. The nightmare now turned dream of purchasing a $750,000 or $1 million crap shack is the ultimate goal in this manic market. While this is a dream for most the housing market is incredibly unaffordable. Housing affordability has dropped to an 8-year low because first, home prices are surging without wages keeping up and mortgage rates recently surged. Many families had been leveraging up in this low inventory market and locking into mega mortgages for a piece of the crap shack pie. With rates going up getting a piece of that action is now more expensive…
NYC Garment District Office Property Commands $108M
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New York—ATCO Properties & Management has acquired 240-246 West 35th St., an 18-story Class A office building in Manhattan’s Garment District, from the RPW Group for $108 million.
“It is one of the garment center’s best mid-block office buildings, with great light and air, better elevators and lobbies than other properties, and excellent floor plans,” Damon Hemmerdinger, ATCO’s co-president, told Commercial Property Executive. “While we are happy to own this property at today’s market rents, we believe that this will be the next neighborhood in Manhattan to see significant rent growth.”
Wells Fargo Settles With Brokers Over Claims of Racial Bias
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Bank to pay $35 million to about 500 black financial advisers
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Wells Fargo says it still disagrees with brokers’ claims
Wells Fargo & Co. settled a dispute with a group of black brokers claiming the bank failed to give them the same career opportunities as their white colleagues.
The bank will pay $35 million to more than 500 financial advisers and trainees, according to a settlement agreement filed Friday. Wells Fargo also agreed to add employees tasked with recruiting and coaching black brokers, and to set up a $500,000 business-development fund…
Kohler Signature Awarded Certification Under New LEED Rating System
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Kohler Signature StoreLocated at 3250 Helms Ave. in Culver City, Calif., the 2,822-square-foot retail space and headquarters is the first U.S. location and the eleventh project in the world to be certified under the LEED v4 Interior Design + Construction: Retail rating system by the U.S. Green Building Council…
Actively Managed Funds Take a Beating: The Year in Four Charts
Posted by: | CommentsHow bad was 2016 for mutual fund stock pickers?
These charts tell the (ugly) story.
Two records will be made this year. Active managers will have the worst year ever for redemptions, while passive funds will have the best for inflows.
Here’s what went in and out each month…
Actively Managed Funds Take a Beating: The Year in Four Charts
Cushman & Wakefield Expands Dallas’ Team
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Adam Hammack
Dallas—Adam Hammack has recently joined Cushman & Wakefield’s Dallas-Fort Worth office as a senior director. He brings more than a decade of commercial real estate experience to the role, including six years at CBRE, negotiating more than 200 transactions and advising institutional clients such as Hines, TIAA-CREF, Prologis, Morgan Stanley, TA Realty, Clarion Partners, Colony Capital and DCT.
Le Pen to Finance French Race With Father’s Fund as Banks Balk
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Marine Le Pen
Photographer: Marlene Awaad/Bloomberg
National Front leader Marine Le Pen will borrow 6 million euros ($6.3 million) from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen’s political fund, Cotelec, to fund her presidential race as French banks refuse to loan money to the far-right party.
Cotelec must finance the National Front’s campaigns, party Vice President Florian Philippot said in an interview Sunday with French radio Europe 1. “The fundamental issue is that the French banks refuse to lend and choose candidates for the presidential election they finance and the ones they don’t,” he said…
Hartman Expands Texas Portfolio
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Three Forest Plaza in Dallas
Dallas— Hartman Short Term Income Properties XX Inc. recently announced that Hartman Three Forest Plaza LLC, a subsidiary, acquired Three Forest Plaza, a 19-story office tower in Dallas. The Dallas HFF office team represented the seller in the transaction and David Wheeler, Russell Turman and Julian Kwok represented the buyer. Hartman Three Forest Plaza LLC was represented by HFF’s Dallas mortgage brokerage team in the placement of acquisitions financing with Southside Bank at 50 percent LTV.
A 10% Rally in S&P 500 Makes Geniuses of Wall Street Strategists
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Posts sixth annual gain in eight years as bull market endures
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Wall Street forecasters have the most accurate year on record
Pedestrians walk past a Christmas tree displayed outside of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, on Dec. 30, 2016.
Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg
They didn’t exactly nail every detail. But U.S. equity strategists got one thing right about 2016: where the S&P 500 Index would end up.
Hedge Funds Bet the Commodity Revival Will Keep Going in 2017
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Holdings across 18 raw materials climb 9.7% in December
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Investors are betting on declines for cocoa, corn, wheat
Commodities had a resurgence in 2016, with the first annual advance since 2010. The gains will continue next year for many of the markets, at least that’s what hedge funds are signaling.
Money managers boosted their combined net-long position, or bets on prices gains, across 18 commodities by 9.7 percent in December, government data show. A year earlier, the funds were net-short, or wagering on declines. Investors last week added to bullish positions in cotton, cattle, crude oil and soybean meal, but aren’t optimistic for corn, cocoa and wheat…
After Belt Tightening, Venture Capitalists See More Promise in 2017
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Peter Hamby, head of news at Snapchat, covering a campaign event for Gov. John Kasich in Manchester, N.H., in February. Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., is expected to have one of the biggest I.P.O.s of 2017.CreditIan Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist for The New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO — Investors who once poured money into the nation’s start-ups with abandon began to tighten their belts this year.
The amount of money that flowed into start-ups in the United States fell in 2016 for the first time in four years as the number of deals struck tumbled to their lowest levels since 2011.
Economy Watch: Apartment Supply, Rents Will Continue to Grow in 2017
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Source: Berkadia, 2017 Market Forecast
Apartments nationwide will enjoy a reasonably strong year in 2017, buoyed by continued employment growth (a rise of more than 2.7 million jobs, or 1.9 percent), Berkadia predicated in its 2017 Market Forecast. The company estimates vacancies nationwide will edge down 20 basis points to 5.1 percent, even as more than 320,600 new units are put on the market.
$90M Construction Financing Earmarked For NYC Office Building
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Rendering of 61 Ninth Ave., New York (Courtesy of Rafael Vinoly Architects via Vornado Realty Trust)
New York—A joint venture between Vornado Realty Trust and Aurora Capital Associates has received $90 million in construction financing for 61 Ninth Ave., a planned 164,000-square-foot Class A office building with prime ground-floor retail space in Manhattan’s Midtown South region.
JLL’s Capital Markets team secured the loan from Helaba and CIT Group.
Would-Be Carmakers Tap the Wisdom, and Dollars, of Crowds
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A prototype of the three-wheeled, gasoline-powered vehicle that Elio Motors wants to build. The company’s founder says it would get 84 miles per gallon and have a $7,300 starting price. CreditPaul Sancya/Associated Press
AFTER Ford Motor came close to bankruptcy in the late 1970s, the company decided to bet the store on what was then a radical new design: what would come to be known as the Ford Taurus.
To develop, manufacture and market the car, Ford earmarked $3 billion — about $8 billion in today’s dollars — in hope of turning the company around.
Mi9 Retail Continues to Add Jobs in U.S
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12000 Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 600, Miami Headquarters
Miami—Mi9 Retail, a provider of software solutions for the retail industry, continues to expand its United States operations center headquartered in Miami, Fla. The company began its Miami-based operations in 2014 and expects to employ more than 100 people in 2017.
“The Miami area is attractive to a rapidly growing company like ours,” Neil Moses, CEO of Mi9 Retail, said in a statement. “We have been successful in recruiting people who have cutting edge technical skills and retail experience, and who want to grow their career by working in a high-growth, entrepreneurial environment.”…
London House-Price Growth Lags Behind U.K. First Time Since 2008
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Values rose annual 3.7% in capital and 4.5% nationally
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Nationwide says buyers increasingly priced out of the market
London’s housing market underperformed the rest of the U.K. for the first time in eight years as buyers increasingly found themselves stretched by affordability, according to Nationwide Building Society.
Home prices in the capital rose 3.7 percent in 2016 from a year earlier, down from 12.2 percent in 2015, the mortgage lender said on Thursday. Across the U.K., values increased an annual 4.5 percent, climbing 0.8 percent in December…
London House-Price Growth Lags Behind U.K. First Time Since 2008
Documents Open Curtain on Boardroom Drama at Valeant
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s rare to get a peek behind the corporate curtain and to catch a glimpse of the real-time deterioration of the relationship between an activist investor and the chief executive he had long supported.
But thanks to a recently released report by the Senate Special Committee on Aging, we have been offered a front-row seat to witness how the billionaire hedge fund manager William A. Ackman turned on J. Michael Pearson, the chief executive of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, and replaced him with Joseph Papa in hopes that Valeant’s miserable fortunes could be turned around. It’s like watching a car crash…
Vornado Disposes of Skyline Properties in Virginia
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The Skyline office complex in northern Virginia.
Falls Church, Va.–Vornado Realty Trust is officially done with the struggling 2.6 million-square-foot Skyline office complex in northern Virginia. The New York-based REIT let the eight-building property go into foreclosure because the income from the half-empty office buildings wasn’t covering the debt it owed.
This week, the REIT announced the final disposition by the receiver of the Fairfax County properties and said all assets, approximately $237 million, and liabilities of about $723 million related to the Skyline campus would be removed from its balance sheet. In the fourth quarter, Vornado will recognize a non-cash financial statement gain of approximately $486 million and no taxable income…
Easing China’s Housing Bubble Has Unintended Side Effects
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Beijing, Shanghai help chill rust-belt cities of Jilin, Harbin
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Smaller cities suffer housing gluts, no frenzied speculation
Residential buildings stand in Beijing, China on Friday, Nov. 25, 2016.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
In China’s two-speed property market, prescriptions for deflating big-city bubbles are having unintended side-effects in smaller towns.
Soaring prices in megacities Beijing and Shanghai both snapped 20 months of gains in November after authorities tightened restrictions to reduce excessive speculation. Meanwhile, real estate in the northwestern rust belt cities of Jilin and Harbin also declined, posting their first drops in four months…
Stryker Co. Invests $130M in New Facility in Michigan
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Stryker Co. Global Headquarters at 2825 Airview Blvd., Kalamazoo, Mich.
Portage, Mich.—Stryker Co. recently announced the investment of more than $130 millin to establish a new facility in Portage, Michigan. The company offers a diverse array of products and services in orthopedics, medical and surgical, neurotechnology and spine that help improve patient and hospital outcomes.
Sealy & Co. Acquires 164KSF Business Park in Dallas
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601 Canyon Drive
Dallas—Sealy & Co. announced its acquisition of 121 Corporate Park, a 163,797-square-foot business park located at 601 Canyon Drive in Dallas’ DFW Airport submarket of Coppell, Texas. The property sits on more than 19 acres and features both a value-add opportunity and an additional 4.2 acres of developable land. The four-building business park offers 819 parking spaces and is 65 percent leased to seven well-established tenants that have a strong history of occupancy there.
China Would Outlast U.S. in Trade War, Billion-Dollar Fund Says
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Trade war a ‘distinct possibility’ in 2017, James Wang writes
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China better placed to use state resources to aid exporters
China would outlast the U.S. in a trade war, which is a “distinct possibility” next year after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, a commentator wrote in the $1 billion Pine River China Fund’s investor letter.
China’s government would be better placed than the U.S. to marshal state resources to cushion the impact on exporters, wrote James Wang, a City University of Hong Kong professor who pens a monthly commentary for the fund. Privately-owned Chinese exporters would be worse hit than state-controlled peers because they have less political clout in Beijing, he said…
NewMark Merrill Wraps Up Phase I of Crenshaw Plaza Redevelopment
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Crenshaw Imperial Plaza rendering
Inglewood, Calif.—Woodland Hills-based NewMark Merrill Cos., has completed Phase 1 of the $15 million redevelopment of Crenshaw Imperial Plaza, a 304,755-square-foot shopping center located on the southwest corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and Imperial Highway in Inglewood, Calif.
The firm secured a $34.4 million senior loan for the recapitalization of the project. PCCP LLC provided the new loan, while George Smith Partners arranged it. CBRE is working closely with the firm’s leasing team on leasing at Crenshaw Imperial Plaza. CSI Construction Co. is the general contractor, while McKently Malak Architects serve as the architect of the project…
CPPIB Pockets $1B on Sale of NYC Office Stake
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1221 Avenue of the Americas (courtesy of Cushman & Wakefield)
New York—Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has let go of its 45 percent ownership stake in 1221 Avenue of the Americas, a 2.6 million-square-foot office tower at Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan. The Toronto-based pension fund sold its share of the 50-story skyscraper to a global institutional investor for $1 billion in a deal valuing the asset at a whopping $2.3 billion.
The Golden Era of Hedge Funds Draws to a Close With Clients in Revolt
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The million-dollar question: Who will keep earning 2 and 20?
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Clients revolt as traders get rich on management fees
Drinks flowed as hedge fund titan Robert Mercer, dressed as Mandrake the Magician, partied with Donald Trump, dressed as, well, Donald Trump.
The occasion that early December evening was Mercer’s 2016 holiday costume party, an intimate gathering of 250 at his Long Island estate. This year’s theme: “Villains and Heroes.”…
The Golden Era of Hedge Funds Draws to a Close With Clients in Revolt
Trump Lauds SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son on Sprint’s 5,000 Jobs
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President-elect also cites OneWeb plan for Florida investment
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Son’s earlier meeting with Trump fueled merger speculation
Sprint Corp. will return 5,000 jobs to the U.S., President-elect Donald Trump said, crediting the wireless company’s owner Masayoshi Son for the move.
“Because of what’s happening and the spirit and the hope I was just called by the head people at Sprint and they’re going to be bringing 5,000 jobs back to the United States,” Trump told reporters Wednesday outside his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago. “Masa and some other people were very much involved with that.”…
Morning Agenda: Justice Dept. vs. Banks, a 1MDB Cloud, Hedge Fund Math
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The Barclays Bank building in Canary Wharf, London. CreditKevin Coombs/Reuters
Deutsche Bank has reached a tentative deal to resolve a federal investigation into its sale of toxic mortgage securities, which will cost it $7.2 billion.
The civil settlement includes a $3.1 billion penalty and $4.1 billion of relief to American customers, which it said would be “primarily in the form of loan modifications and other assistance to homeowners.”…
Morning Agenda: Justice Dept. vs. Banks, a 1MDB Cloud, Hedge Fund Math
Meridian Group Sells Tysons Tech Center for $96M
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Tysons Technology Center
Vienna, Va.—The Meridian Group recently closed the sale of Tysons Technology Center, a 280,000-square-foot technology campus just outside Washington, D.C. The property traded for $96 million to an undisclosed buyer. Meridian was represented by Cushman & Wakefield’s Eric Berkman and Bill Collins and JM Zell Partners’ Jeff Zell and Louis Kluger. Gary Block, managing director at The Meridian Group led the firm’s efforts on the acquisition and sale of the asset.
2016 Was a Year for Undoing Major Deals
Posted by: | CommentsIt may not have been a banner year for striking deals, but 2016 was a healthy time for breaking them.
This year was the biggest in terms of volume for busted transactions — those withdrawn after being announced — since the depths of the financial crisis eight years ago, as big takeovers by the likes of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, the Oreos maker Mondelez and the office supply retailer Staples were consigned to the scrap heap…
2016 Was a Year for Undoing Major Deals
Executive of the Year Spotlight: David Simon
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David Simon (above) received Honorable Mention for the 2016 Retail Property Executive of the Year award.
This article kicks off a series of short profiles highlighting recipients of CPE’s Executives of the Year awards. Celebrating its 20th year, the program acknowledges the contributions of commercial real estate’s top executives across all major business sectors and asset types.
First-place winners and honorable mention awardees are chosen by a confidential vote of the CPE 100, an invited group of industry veterans.
Manhattan Luxury Co-Ops Fall Out of Favor
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Contracts for co-ops priced at $4 million or more slide 25%
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Buyers see restrictive board rules as outdated, broker says
The luxury Manhattan co-op, a longtime sign of real estate prestige and exclusivity in New York, may be losing its appeal. Blame a glut of newly built high-end condos.
Contracts for co-op apartments priced at $4 million or more fell 25 percent this year from 2015, as buyers with means opted for newer homes with more amenities and fewer restrictive rules, according to a report published by luxury brokerage Olshan Realty Inc. It was the biggest annual decline since the firm started tracking luxury co-op contracts a decade ago…
Hans Tietmeyer, Banker Who Led German Transition to Euro, Dies at 85
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Hans Tietmeyer, president of the Bundesbank in the 1990s. CreditOed/ullstein bild, via Getty Images
FRANKFURT — Hans Tietmeyer, the central banker who led Germany’s transition from the deutsche mark to the euro despite reservations about a single European currency, died on Tuesday. He was 85.
The Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, announced his death but did not give the cause or say where he died.
As president of the Bundesbank from 1993 until 1999, Mr. Tietmeyer was the most powerful central banker in Europe and a leading advocate of policies that prized price stability above all else. But in contrast to some of his more dogmatic predecessors, he was also known as a politically savvy pragmatist capable of compromise…
Stonelake and HPI Break Ground On 310KSF Office Building
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The Domain at 10721 Domain Drive
Austin, Texas—Stonelake Capital Partners and HPI Real Estate Services & Investments announced they have broken ground on Domain Tower, an 11-story, 310,000-square-foot, Class-A office building located at the entrance to The Domain at 10721 Domain Drive. J.P. Morgan is the construction lender for Domain Tower which is scheduled for completion in early 2018.
Ripening Sentiment Toward U.S. Stocks Fails to Ring Sell Alarms
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Conference Board confidence measure highest since January 2004
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S&P 500 has historically rallied following similar peaks
One measure of U.S. equity sentiment just had its biggest jump since 2009. Does that imply a euphoric moment that puts the bull market on death watch? History suggests not.
A Conference Board index tracking Americans who expect shares to rise surged 45 percent in December, data showed Tuesday. While that was the highest reading in more than a decade, similarly elevated levels haven’t been reliable sell signals. Six times the survey was higher since 1997, the S&P 500 Index rose in the next 12 months by an average of 2 percent, Bloomberg data show…
JV to Deliver 367KSF Industrial Park in Charlotte
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The future location of SteelePoint, Charlotte, N.C.
Charlotte, N.C.—A partnership between real estate investment firms Foundry Commercia and Thackeray Partners recently announced the development of a 367,000-square-foot project in Charlotte’s Southwest submarket. The project will consist of two Class A warehouses, to be known as SteelePoint. The new industrial park will capitalize on dynamic market fundamentals, including single-digit vacancy, strong user demand and limited new supply.
Vivial Expands Dayton Operations
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Vivial’s office in Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio—Vivial recently announced that it is expanding its operations center and headquarters in Dayton, Ohio. The expansion will include a new outbound call center. Vivial will acquire additional space and plans to hire more than 60 full and part-time positions over the next months.
Japanese Owner Emerges for Google-Anchored Hercules Campus in LA
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Rendering of Hercules Campus West
Los Angeles—The four-building office campus in Los Angeles that includes the hangars where Howard Hughes once built the 200-ton Hercules H-4 plane, popularly known as the Flying Boat or the “Spruce Goose”, is off the market.
HFF recently announced that the Hercules Campus West in Playa Vista, Calif., was sold to a Japanese corporate investor. Though financial terms of the transaction remained undisclosed, The Real Deal estimates that the sellers—the Ratkovich Co. and Penwood Real Estate Investment Management—sold the roughly 358,000-square-foot property for approximately $320 million…
Pending U.S. Existing-Home Sales Fall on Higher Mortgage Rates
Posted by: | CommentsContracts to purchase previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly decreased in November on a sudden pickup in mortgage rates and limited inventory, according to figures released Wednesday from the National Association of Realtors in Washington.
Key Points
- Pending home sales gauge declined 2.5 percent (forecast was for 0.5 percent gain) after rising 0.1 percent the prior month
- Index increased 1.4 percent from November 2015 on an unadjusted basis
- Pending sales decreased in three of four U.S. regions on a month-to-month basis…
Pending U.S. Existing-Home Sales Fall on Higher Mortgage Rates
Credit Suisse Changes Mind Re: Betting On President Trump’s Reasonableness
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Photo: Getty Images.
Maybe it was the president-elect’s pledge to launch and new nuclear arms race, the sequel to his celebrated, “If we have them, why can’t we use them?” and while we’re at it maybe Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia should have and use them, too.
Or Maybe it was his walking back Corey Lewandowski’s and Newt Gingrich’s assertions that he’s not terribly interested in draining the swamp anymore.
Whatever it was, Credit Suisse has gone from hard pass on a $5 million subprime mortgage settlement to “happy to resolve this issue” in a matter of four days….
Cerner Opens Eighth KC Metro Area Health Center
Posted by: | CommentsNearly 2,000 Unified Government employees will benefit from affordable medical care.
Cerner Corp.’s Continuous Campus in Kansas City, Mo.
Kansas City, Mo.—The Unified Government (UG) of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, in cooperation with Cerner Corp., a global leader in health care technology and The University of Kansas Hospital (KU), recently announced the opening of the Road to Wellness Health Center. More than 2,000 UG employees will have access to several health and care services that are part of UG’s long-term strategy to improve the health of its citizens and provide affordable care. KU will provide physicians for all oversight occupational medicine programs and services for UG employees.
New U.S. Industrial Fund to Spend $1.5 Billion
Posted by: | CommentsGLP US Incomes Partners III will be seeded with a $1.1 billion portfolio from Hillwood.
GLP CEO Ming Z. Mei
Chicago—GLP, a Singapore-based global provider of logistics facilities and the second largest owner and operator in the United States, is once again firmly focused on the U.S., establishing a new fund that plans to invest $1.5 billion over three years.
President Trump Has Single-Handedly Saved Literally Dozens Of Hedge Fund Jobs
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We’ve had some fund with hedge funds this year. They were down—often way down—and we rather enjoyed kicking them in said prone position. It wasn’t very sporting, but it was satisfying.
The time has come, alas, to admit that we were wrong. Reports—ours and others—of the demise of the hedge fund industry have proven greatly exaggerated. For while we remain skeptical that President Trump will Make Coal or Manufacturing or Infrastructure Great Again, he has certainly given the paper-pushers he’s stocking his administration with some refreshing gale-force winds at their backs and revived their animal spirits within…
Colony-NorthStar Merger Wins Stockholder Approval
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Thomas Barrack Jr., executive chairman of Colony
Los Angeles and New York—Following the early June announcement that the three companies would merge, the shareholders of Colony Capital Inc., NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc. and NorthStar Realty Finance Corp. have voted to approve the merger, the companies revealed last week.
Reportedly the largest CRE merger of 2016, the transaction will create Colony NorthStar Inc., an equity REIT and global alternative investment manager with $58 billion in assets under management. The new company will trade on the NYSE under symbol “CLNS.”…
Louisiana Attracts $8.5B Natural Gas Facility
Posted by: | CommentsVenture Global will erect Plaquemines LNG on a 632-acre parcel stretching 7,000 feet along the Mississippi River
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards
Plaquemines Parish, La.—The State of Louisiana just got a holiday treat from Venture Global LNG, which recently announced it would develop an $8.5 billion natural gas liquefaction facility and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Plaquemines Parish, La., roughly 30 miles outside New Orleans.
Totally Normal Hedge Fund Putting Founder’s Brain Into A Computer
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Listen, you guys, Bridgewater is just a normal hedge fund.
Deep inside Bridgewater Associates LP, the world’s largest hedge-fund firm, software engineers are at work on a secret project that founder Ray Dalio has sometimes called “The Book of the Future.”
Just your run of the mill asset management firm managing $160 billion in the Connecticut woods…
Totally Normal Hedge Fund Putting Founder’s Brain Into A Computer
GKN’s NC Facilities Get $179M Boost
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The GKN plant in Maiden County, N.C.
Charlotte, N.C.—British-based GKN Driveline recently announced its plans to expand operations at its five facilities in North Carolina. The company plans to add a total of 302 jobs and invest at least $179 million in Alamance, Catawba, Lee, Maiden and Person counties. GKN opened its first facility in North Carolina in 1978, and its various locations in the state currently employ more than 2,700 people. GKN Driveline’s expansion adds a total of 159 people at its facilities in Sanford, Mebane and Timberlake over five years, and 143 jobs in Maiden over four years.
Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Increased 5.1% in October
Posted by: | CommentsHome prices in 20 U.S. cities maintained a steady pace of increases in October while a gauge of nationwide property values rose by the most since mid-2014, according to S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller data released Tuesday.
Key Points
- 20-city property values index rose 5.1 percent from October 2015 (forecast was 5 percent) after a 5 percent gain in the year through September
- National home-price gauge increased 5.6 percent from 12 months earlier, the biggest gain since July 2014, to a record 185.06; the measure first exceeded the 2006 pre-recession peak in September
Toshiba Could Lose Billions From Troubled U.S. Nuclear Power Deal
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Shares in Toshiba fell nearly 12 percent in Tokyo on Tuesday after it said that it might need to write off several billion dollars related to an acquisition in the nuclear power sector.CreditBehrouz Mehri/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
TOKYO — Toshiba, the Japanese technology conglomerate, has spent a decade and billions of dollars building itself into one of the largest players in the global nuclear power industry by buying up rivals.
The result has been a financial quagmire — one that is about to deepen.
U.K. House Prices May Barely Rise as Brexit Weighs on Economy
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Halifax forecasts increase of 1%-4% by the end of 2017
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Housing to lose momentum, with London particularly hit
U.K. house prices may only eke out a modest gain next year as economic growth weakens and a pickup in inflation squeezes consumers, according to Halifax.
The mortgage lender sees housing demand easing in 2017, partly as tax changes and stricter underwriting standards restrict buy-to-let investment. It also highlighted the market in London, saying adverse affordability means the capital will see a sharper slowdown than elsewhere. Elsewhere, there are “few signs” of significant stresses and imbalances at present, it said…
After Uncertain Year, New Administration Portends Shift in Wall Street Scrutiny
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Gary D. Cohn, the choice as the top economic policy adviser in the Trump administration. He is one of several people from Goldman Sachs whom Donald J. Trump has tapped for important roles.CreditSam Hodgson for The New York Times
The Scottish poet Robert Burns once wrote “there is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.” There seemed to be any number of sure things this past year, from the outcome of the presidential election to how the Supreme Court would cut back on insider trading.
They turned out to be anything but what many had hoped.
HFF, Triad Close Sale of NC Office Portfolio
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The office building at 629 Green Valley Road, Greensboro, N.C.
Charlotte, N.C.— HFF and Triad Commercial Properties recently announced that they have closed the sale of four office buildings in the Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point area of North Carolina. The two firms marketed the 136,860-square-foot properties on behalf of the sellers, a joint venture between CBL & Associates Properties Inc. and a pension fund investor advised by Heitman. They also procured the buyer, Deep River Partners.
Trump Win Could Usher in Boom for U.S. Housing, Says Shiller
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Rising mortgage rates may spur more buying now to get ahead
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Says ‘I want to see Trump’s actual policies’ and what can pass
Donald Trump’s unexpected victory in the November U.S. presidential election could prove a pivotal moment for the U.S. housing market, according to economist and Nobel laureate Robert Shiller.
“I think we’re at a turning point. The numbers that we’re reporting today are October, before the Trump election, and everything looks different now,” he told Bloomberg Television’s Alix Steel and David Westin. “There might be a Trump boom coming.”…
There has been little discussion in 2016 regarding the volume of all cash buyers. We have grown accustomed to anomalies in the housing market. Rapid dips and jumps in prices are now assumed to be a part of the system. Massive numbers of investors buying single family homes are now assumed to be status quo. And the number of all cash transactions is seen as normal when in fact, all cash buyers were usually a small part of the market. All of this is abnormal in the housing market pre-2000s but we are now living in a very different world. Yet people still have a hard time understanding the volume of all cash buyers in certain markets. Clearly most of these buyers are investors. Even a home costing $200,000 is out of reach for the regular family living paycheck to paycheck without a mortgage. And mortgage rates just increased at their fasted clip in many years thus making it more expensive to buy a home. In some markets, cash buyers dominate sales volume…
A Contrarian’s View on Inflation Fears
Posted by: | CommentsAs the United States economy braces itself for the presidency of Donald J. Trump, many have been quick to point out that the policies of the incoming administration may have the unintended consequence of fueling inflation.
They argue that the prospect of a large fiscal stimulus as the economy is approaching full employment may create shortages in the labor market. Additionally, substantial infrastructure spending could spark a rally in commodity prices, lifting the cost of producing manufactured goods…
A Contrarian’s View on Inflation Fears
1MDB Case Hangs Over Goldman Sachs as Investigators Dig for Answers
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The police raiding the 1MDB office in Malaysia in 2015. The government has said that no 1MDB funds were misappropriated. CreditMohd Rasfan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Even as Goldman Sachs is gaining a more prominent profile in the administration of Donald J. Trump, the Wall Street investment firm is undergoing scrutiny in an investigation in a sprawling international money laundering and embezzlement scheme.
Prosecutors have said that billions of dollars that Goldman raised for a Malaysian government investment fund — known as 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB — were channeled into a web of personal bank accounts and was ultimately used to buy paintings, luxury real estate and investment stakes in movies like “The Wolf of Wall Street.”…