C Land Realty Finalizes Major Logistics Center Deal in NJ
• C Land Realty has successfully brokered a long-term lease agreement for a 50,000-square-foot cold chain logistics center located in Northern New Jersey.
• The subject of this transaction is a 52,304-square-foot logistics and refrigeration facility located in North Bergen, Hudson County, New Jersey.
Situated in a strategic logistics hub, it offers convenient access to major ports and highways across New Jersey as well as Manhattan, New York.
• Logistics facilities built with these specialized capabilities are considered rare commercial real estate assets in Northern New Jersey due to limited supply.
• This project was led by C Land Realty’s Evan John and Cindy Hong.
• C Land Realty previously brokered a primary supplier factory contract spanning 135,000 square feet near the Hyundai EV plant in the Savannah area of Georgia.
Zillow, Redfin in Settlement With FTC
• The Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement with Zillow and Redfin,
resolving an earlier claim that the companies had worked together to reduce competition in the marketplace.
• The FTC on Monday said its settlement unwinds an agreement from last year,
in which Zillow paid Redfin $100 million to shut down its internet-listing services business and stay out of the market for up to nine years.
• The agreement also called for Redfin to exclusively repost apartment listings provided by Zillow, according to the FTC.
• The order, which contains no admission of liability or wrongdoing by Zillow,
comes after the FTC filed a complaint in September, alleging that the agreement between Zillow and Redfin violated antitrust laws.
Five states—Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Virginia and Washington— filed similar complaints, and the cases were consolidated late last year.
AI Worsens Inequality… The Rich Get Richer, Wealthy Areas Get Wealthier
• Concerns are emerging among experts that Artificial Intelligence (AI) could worsen wealth gaps between individuals, household income tiers, and regions.
• On the 20th, The Washington Post (WP) reported that renowned economists, hedge fund titans, and progressive politicians warn that
“AI could produce potentially destructive political consequences and build a powder keg of inequality.“
• Data from Moody’s Analytics shows that consumption growth for the wealthiest top 20% in the US over
the past 3 years was about 3 times that of the bottom 80%.
• Mark Zandi, Chief Economist at the firm, explained:
“Thanks to AI, wealthy Americans saw their consumption rise, but due to inflation, purchasing power for everyone else has fallen.”
National Debt Lives Rent Free in Your Mortgage Payment.
• A $40 trillion national debt pile sounds like an abstract number, until it starts to show up in Americans’ mortgage bills.
• Investors are demanding a higher return to lend to the U.S. government.
• Several things are behind the recent rise in long-term bond yields, including sticky inflation and a less predictable Federal Reserve.
But worries about America’s finances also are a factor. Total public debt outstanding officially passed the $40 trillion mark last week.
• Moves in the bond market influence the price of home loans, which track the 10-year Treasury yield.
The rate on a 30-year mortgage has been above 6.6% for most of August.
• Expensive mortgages are making it harder to get housing deals done. Existing-home sales fell 1.7% in July over the previous month.
Tuesday’s release of sales for new homes in July is expected to continue showing a sluggish market.
$103,265 Fee for H-1B Applications, pushed again
• The Donald Trump administration is moving to institutionalize a plan requiring new H-1B visa applicants to pay a fee exceeding $100,000.
• According to Reuters, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposed a rule via the Federal Register requiring a $103,265 fee for new H-1B applications.
•A 30-day public comment period begins today, with finalization expected by the end of the year.
This follows a presidential proclamation from September last year; the proclamation remains valid for one year and expires next month.
• The $100,000 fee plan has faced repeated injunctions in federal courts. If the DHS proposal is finalized, another legal battle is expected.
• Total H-1B applications reported by U.S. companies last year dropped to about 344,000—down over 25% from 2024, and less than half of 2023’s 794,000.
SK Hynix Plans $28 Billion Buyback
• SK Hynix plans to buy back and cancel more than $28 billion of its shares over the next three months,
accelerating its shareholder-return program via what it says would be South Korea’s largest stock buyback.
• The world’s second-largest memory chip maker, which supplies high-bandwidth memory products to Nvidia,
said the planned share repurchase is part of its commitment to return to shareholders more than
50% of its cumulative free cash flow over the three years through 2027.
• The planned repurchase of 24.07 million shares, or about 3.3% of total shares outstanding, will run from Aug. 20 through Nov. 19, it said.
• “SK Hynix continues to record record-breaking financial performance, maintaining its leadership in the AI memory market,” the company said.
Moderna, Merck Shares Soar On Cancer Vaccine Success
• An experimental mRNAbased vaccine succeeded in preventing cancer from coming back or spreading in a study of high-risk melanoma patients,
Moderna and its partner Merck said Wednesday,
paving the way for a potentially new life-extending treatment for the thousands of people diagnosed with the deadly skin cancer each year.
• Moderna shares more than doubled Wednesday to $174.38 while stock in Merck notched an all-time high, rising 12.6% to close at $152.20.
• “I have a feeling that this is just the beginning of a new field,”
said Jane Healy, a vice president of oncology at Merck,
adding the goal for patients is “to give them longer without having to worry about treatments for cancer.”
• Moderna has been trying to regain financial ground after years of consecutive losses since the Covid-19 pandemic started to wane.
Join The Discussion