Bloomberg cited new data from brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate and appraiser Miller Samuel that showed the median Manhattan apartment rent climbed 2.4% from a year earlier to $4,295. This was the first annual gain since April.

In other surrounding boroughs, new leases signed in Brooklyn last month averaged around $3,600, up 3.2% from a year earlier. In northwest Queens, median rents were up nearly 5% to $3,350.

In recent weeks, the US 10-year Treasury bond yield, which lenders use as a guide to price home loans, jumped in anticipation of a Trump win. Yields soared even after the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate. This is mostly because traders forecasted elevated inflation under the Trump administration.

Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, noted that lower mortgage rates lured some renters to purchase homes before the presidential election. However, he noted that rents started to re-accelerate as soon as mortgage rates bottomed in late September and surged through October. He added that a 30-year mortgage rate over 7% has pressured rents higher. […]

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President-elect Trump himself has declared he has a “mandate”, although he will be subject to the checks and balances inherent in the US political system. The Supreme Court, with six of its nine justices appointed by a Republican president, is also likely to be broadly supportive of his policy agenda.

A Trump administration means radical changes for tariffs on imports, climate policy and international affairs. For the energy and natural resources sectors, the implications are many. A pathway nearer to our new delayed transition scenario is now more likely. Here are our team’s initial thoughts.

Power and renewables and decarbonisation:

The US will backtrack on net zero. Bipartisan support for measures in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) means that a full repeal is unlikely, but the expiration of tax cuts passed in President Trump’s first term will force Congress to re-examine incentives for low-carbon energy.

Near-term growth expectations for wind, solar, battery storage and EVs rely on IRA incentives, including 10-plus years of eligibility for production and investment tax credits. Even if Congress doesn’t end those credits, various elements of the IRA – including tax credit timelines, financing mechanisms or bonus adders – are likely to be removed or modified. […]

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Despite a surge in unionizing efforts last year, from Starbucks and Amazon to Trader Joes and Uber, national membership rates fell for the second year in a row. This was due to the rise in non-union jobs, which largely offset the 191,000 new private sector unionized jobs.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows the industries with the highest union membership rates in America, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As we can see in the table below, roughly a third of public sector jobs are unionized, led by the local government sector by a wide margin:

When it comes to the private sector, utilities and transportation have the highest union membership rates, both providing essential services in highly-regulated industries. […]

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As Bitcoin Magazine’s Frank Corva details below, the authors of the report touched on four key benefits of holding bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset:

• Economic and monetary stability – bitcoin is a hedge against currency debasement and debt instability
• Geopolitical competition – the US could gain a strategic advantage over other countries that are contemplating starting a bitcoin reserve and can reinforce the US’ influence over global financial standards
• Energy and climate – Bitcoin mining can be leveraged to accelerate the movement toward renewable energy
• Financial inclusion and human rights – the US can promote both the concepts of individual freedom and financial inclusion for both US citizens and those abroad

While I agree that the US’ establishing an SBR would have these benefits, I also think it would send a certain message loud and clear: We embrace change in the United States. […]

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During a Monday morning earnings call, Marriott CFO Leeny Oberg told investors that consumers had pulled back on travel this month, citing headwinds around mounting US election uncertainty.

“Fourth quarter REVPAR [revenue per available room] growth in the US and Canada is currently expected to be generally in line with the third quarter with strong leisure and BP trends in October, offsetting weakness in November due to tomorrow’s election. The election impact on US and Canada REVPAR is forecasted to be around negative 300 basis points in November, and negative 100 basis points for the quarter, double that of past election cycles, as we have meaningfully lower transient and group room nights on the books for both this week and next,” Oberg said.

Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano told investors that fourth-quarter revenues were trending “roughly flat” due to the negative impact of the US election.  […]

— Read More: www.zerohedge.com

But an often-ignored catalyst for gold is U.S. foreign policy.

Under President Biden and VP Harris, world stability has deteriorated. Nations are lining up in two distinct blocs, not dissimilar to the buildup before World War II. Military tension hasn’t been this high in many decades.

Biden and Harris have also greatly accelerated the weaponization of the dollar. Sanctions and financial warfare have become the de facto levers applied to protect U.S. national interests (real and perceived).

The ongoing shift away from dollar assets is directly tied to the Biden administration’s seizure of Russian assets following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. […]

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That was just the beginning, however, and this morning we subsequently learned that through the end of Q3, Berkshire’s unprecedented cash build continued, and the world’s largest conglomerate added another $48 billion to its cash – through both “harvesting” (i.e., selling of existing holdings) and cash from operations, taking it to a record $325.2 billion, or nearly a quarter trillion in cash. As shown for context in the chart below, Berkshire has nearly doubled its cash holdings from $168 billion at the start of the year to a staggering $325 billion 9 months later, up 94%!

The bulk of the new cash came from sales: in the third quarter, Berkshire sold a net $34.6 billion worth of stock, following the record $75.5 billion in Q2 liquidations, the bulk of which we now know came from Buffett’s sale of half his Apple shares. In other words, the third quarter was the 8th consecutive quarter in which Berkshire has been a net seller of stocks.

And the selling continued: while there was no 13F filed yet to go with the Berkshire’s 10Q, the company provided a snapshot of its top holdings, revealing that as of Sept 30 it held only $69.9 billion in Apple stock, down a quarter from the $84.2 billion as of June 30, down 62% from $135.4 billion as of March 31 and down 70% from the $174.3 billion as of Dec 31, 2023. This translates into just 300 million shares of AAPL held as of Sept 30, less than a third of what Berkshire owned at the end of 2023, and 30% of Buffett’s peak AAPL holdings of 1 billion shares as of 2018.

Buffett said in May that Apple would likely remain Berkshire’s top holding, indicating that tax issues had motivated the sale. “I don’t mind at all, under current conditions, building the cash position,” he said at the annual shareholder meeting. It was unclear if BRK shareholders understood that to mean a sale of 70% (and rising) of the AAPL holdings. […]

— Read More: www.zerohedge.com

And the harm doesn’t end there: Inflation also is making stock markets appear stronger than they really are and cutting into returns for everyone, including those with retirement accounts.

We seldom hear about that last point. When media outlets discuss the latest inflation rate, they typically highlight the average annual percentage change in the consumer price index. The CPI tracks a basketful of goods, including housing, food, energy, insurance, and more, measuring the average price increases of these items over time.

From 2016 to 2020, the inflation rate averaged 1.9 percent, which resulted in a cumulative price increase of about 7.7 percent over four years. The Federal Reserve’s target rate—about 2 percent—typically goes unnoticed by consumers, as wages tend to rise at a similar pace.

But from 2021 to the present, the inflation rate has averaged 4.9 percent, leading to a cumulative price increase of 19.6 percent. At these elevated levels, wages struggle to keep up, making inflation more noticeable for consumers. A recent poll revealed that 63 percent of voters say they believe the U.S. economy is on the wrong track and 62 percent characterize it as weak. […]

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Now as part of its ongoing jousting with European regulators, China is now telling its automakers to pause investment in EU countries.

China has instructed its automakers to halt major investments in European countries supporting higher tariffs on Chinese-made EVs, according to Reuters. This follows the EU’s new tariffs of up to 45.3%, implemented after a year-long inquiry that split the bloc and provoked Beijing’s response.

During an Oct. 10 meeting held by China’s Ministry of Commerce, automakers like BYD, SAIC, and Geely were advised to pause large investments in countries backing the tariffs. Foreign carmakers attending the meeting were also encouraged to invest in EU nations that opposed the tariff plan, while exercising caution in those that abstained.

Recall days ago Chinese battery company SVOLT shuttered its operations in Europe. Chinese EV battery maker SVOLT Energy plans to shut its European operations by January 2025, in a move that clearly points to China’s retreat from the market – and declining EV sales in Europe, according to Nikkei. […]

— Read More: www.zerohedge.com

“Ford Motor Co. plans to stop building its F-150 Lightning from mid-November through the end of the year amid lower-than-expected demand for the electric pickup,” Automotive News’ Michael Martinez reported on Thursday morning.

At the start of October, John Lawler, Ford’s vice chair and CFO, told reporters in a conference call, “We’re seeing a tremendous amount of competition,” adding, “In fact, S&P Global … said that there are about 143 EVs in the pipeline right now for North America — and most of those are two-row and three-row SUVs.”

Ford scrapped plans to roll out an all-electric three-row SUV in August. This year has been doom and gloom for legacy automakers (from the US to Europe) as they aggressively scale back on EV investments.

The reality is that the Biden-Harris administration, lawmakers, and Wall Street, all wearing climate crisis blinders, stoked the most massive green energy bubble that collapsed. In doing so, legacy automakers who poured billions of dollars into EVs, severely misjudged consumer demand – and now paying the consequences: […]

— Read More: www.zerohedge.com