Real Estate Daily News Buzz is designed to give news snippets to readers that our (yet to be award winning) editors thought you could use to start your day. They come from various business perspectives, real estate, government, the Fed, local news, and the stock markets to save you time. Here you will find the headlines and what the news buzz for the day will be.
Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 138.94 points, or 0.8%, to 17,995.72. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 8.17 points, or 0.4%, to 2,079.43. The NASDAQ composite picked up 15.07 points, or 0.3%, to 4,942.44.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose 39 cents to close at $50 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, fell $1.20 to close at $58.53 in London. Wholesale gasoline fell 0.7 cent to close at $1.875 a gallon. Heating oil fell 2.9 cents to close at $1.840 a gallon. Natural gas fell 16.1 cents to close at $2.678 per 1,000 cubic feet.
SIMON PROPERTY GROUP LAUNCHES HOSTILE BID $22.4B FOR MACERICH
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Simon Property Group has launched a $16 billion hostile bid for Macerich Co. after saying its rival refused to discuss a combination of two of the largest U.S. mall operators. Simon said Monday that it was offering $91 per share in cash and stock for each share of Macerich. That represents a premium of 30% to the closing price of the mall operator’s shares on Nov. 18, before Simon disclosed that it had accumulated a nearly 4% stake in Macerich.The offer is valued at about $22.4 billion, counting Macerich’s debt.
ROSS STORES OPENING 90 STORES IN 2015
Dublin, Calif. -- Ross Stores recently opened 32 Ross Dress for Less stores and five dd’s Discounts locations across 15 different states. The openings are part of the off-price retailer’s 2015 expansion plans to open a total of approximately 90 stores in 2015 (70 Ross and 20 dd’s Discounts). “These openings reflect our ongoing plans to further increase our presence in existing markets while also expanding in the newer markets which we entered back in 2011,” said Jim Fassio, president and chief development officer. “The 37 stores we recently opened include locations in our largest states of California, Texas and Florida, where we are still able to take advantage of attractive sites to further strengthen our market share.” Ross’ spring opening plans also includes additional stores in the chain’s newer markets of Illinois, Kentucky and Indiana. “Looking ahead, we continue to identify future growth opportunities across all of our markets, giving us confidence that Ross Dress for Less can ultimately grow to 2,000 locations and dd’s Discounts can eventually become a chain of 500 stores.” Ross currently operates 1,242 locations in 33 states.
IMPORTS STILL RISING AS WEST COAST PORTS WORK ON BACKLOG
WASHINGTON – Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to rise an unusually high 16.9% this month over the same time last year as West Coast ports begin to dig out from a backlog of cargo that built up during just-concluded contract negotiations with dockworkers, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. Following negotiations that began last spring, the contract between the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union expired on July 1. Despite ongoing talks, the lack of a contract and other operational issues led to crisis-level congestion at the ports, and retailers and other businesses asked President Obama in December to encourage the use of a federal mediator. A mediator joined the talks in January but a tentative agreement was not reached until February 20, after Labor Secretary Tom Perez sat down to personally broker a deal. February was estimated at 1.27 million TEU, up 2.3% from 2014. March is forecast at 1.52 million TEU as spring merchandise arrives, up 16.9% from last year. The March number is high both because of the backlog of ships at anchor waiting to be unloaded and because the annual Lunar New Year shutdown of Chinese factories was later this year, delaying some February cargo into March. April is forecast at 1.51 million TEU, up 5.2%; May at 1.57 million TEU, up 6.1 percent; June also at 1.57 million TEU, up 6%, and July at 1.6 million TEU, up 6.7%. The first half of 2015 is forecast at 8.7 million TEU, an increase of 4.5% over the same period last year.
APPLE WATCH MOVES INTERNET OUT OF YOUR POCKET
Apple made its case Monday for moving the mobile Internet from your pocket to your wrist. Time will tell if millions of consumers are willing to spend $350 on up — there’s an 18-karat gold version that starts at $10,000 — for a wearable device that still requires a wirelessly connected smartphone to deliver some of its most powerful features. But CEO Tim Cook made his case Monday that the Apple Watch is the next must-have device, able to keep people connected to the Internet and serving their information needs all day long, like no other tool has quite been able to do.
HOW NEW CHANGES BY CREDIT REPORTING FIRMS MAY AFFECT YOU
The three big credit reporting agencies are making changes that could help steer some consumers clear of the credit dog house. Data collected by the agencies Equifax, Experian and TransUnion on hundreds of millions of people are used to create credit scores. Those scores can determine who gets a loan and how much interest is paid on it. The move stems from months of negotiations between the companies and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
THE BULL MARKET TURNS 6 AFTER RISING FROM FINANCIAL CRISIS
NEW YORK (AP) — In 2009 the stock market was filled with panic. The housing market had collapsed. Lehman Brothers had gone under and General Motors was on the verge of bankruptcy reorganization. The U.S. was in a deep recession, and stocks had plunged 57 per cent from their high in October 2007. Fast forward six years, and investors are enjoying one of the longest bull markets since the 1940s. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index has more than tripled since bottoming out at 676.53 on March 9, 2009. The bull has pushed through a U.S. debt crisis, an escalating conflict in the Middle East, renewed tensions with Russia over Ukraine and Europe’s stagnating economy.
EUROPE’S NEW STIMULUS MEANS INVESTORS PAY TO BORROW
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Lend a friend a thousand bucks. Then tip him $10 for the privilege. That’s not how things work in everyday life. But that’s the deal in many European government bond markets these days. Yields on some government bonds have become negative — one of the many important, and sometimes odd, effects of the 1.1 trillion euro ($1.2 trillion) stimulus program that the European Central Bank launched Monday.
GM PLANS $5B STOCK BUYBACK, AVERTS SHOWDOWN WITH HEDGE FUNDS
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors announced a $5 billion stock buyback as part of a plan to return more cash to investors. In return, an activist shareholder decided to drop a potentially divisive bid for a seat on the company’s board. The moves, announced Monday, are part of a deal with Harry Wilson, a former member of the government task force that restructured GM coming out of its 2009 bankruptcy. Wilson, who represents four hedge funds which own about 2 per cent of the company, had previously accused GM of hoarding cash to the detriment of shareholders and had sought an $8 billion buyback and a board seat.
OBAMA PRO-TRADE ALLIES CLAIMS ABOUT CHINA’S CURRENCY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supporters of President Barack Obama’s trade agenda are battling opponents’ demands to bar China from keeping its currency value artificially low, a way to subsidize exports. The accusations frustrate and challenge Obama’s allies on several fronts. First, they say, it’s not clear that China still manipulates its currency. And even if it does, they say, the multinational trade talks now underway are the wrong venues for addressing the matter.
SURVEY: BUSINESS ECONOMISTS SUPPORT RATE HIKE THIS YEAR
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most business economists expect the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in the second half of this year, but say uncertainty over the Fed’s plans is no longer slowing U.S. economic recovery, according to a new survey. Seventy-one per cent of the 293 economists polled by the National Association of Business Economists said they expect the Federal Open Market Committee to raise the federal funds target rate this year. The rate — at which banks lend funds to each other overnight — has been near zero since the end of 2008.
LOVIN’ GOES ONLY SO FAR AS McDONALD’S SALES SLIDE AGAIN
NEW YORK (AP) — McDonald’s says global sales declined again in February, including a 4 per cent drop in the U.S. where it is fighting to reinvigorate its image. The world’s biggest hamburger chain has been struggling to hold onto customers amid shifting tastes and intensifying competition, including a slew of places that position themselves as more wholesome alternatives. In a statement Monday, McDonald’s conceded “consumer needs and preferences have changed” and that its recent performance shows it needs to evolve.
ALCOA TO BUY RTI INTERNATIONAL METALS IN $1.5B DEAL, EXPAND AEROSPACE PUSH
Alcoa is taking another step to bolster its stake in the aerospace industry with a $1.5 billion deal to buy titanium supplier RTI International Metals. The New York-based company said Monday that it will buy the specialty metal products company in an all-stock deal. Alcoa said the aerospace and defence industries accounted for 80% of Pittsburgh-based RTI’s revenues last year.
AFTER A HIT WITH NERDS, SONIC PLANS ANOTHER CANDY DRINK MIX
NEW YORK (AP) — Sugar is a bad word in some circles but that isn’t stopping Sonic from pouring candy into its drinks. Last summer, Sonic Drive-In launched a line-up of Slush drinks with Nerds candy mixed in. They were so popular the chain says some people ask to get the crunchy little candies mixed into other drinks, like soda. And given their success, CEO Cliff Hudson says Sonic is looking at adding a second candy-drink mashup this summer, although he declined to provide details. In the meantime, the Nerds are still on menus as a drink add-in for around 30 cents.