Walmart has worked to cut costs over the past year in some areas as it gives priority to spending elsewhere. Last month the company said it would shut all 51 of the health clinics it has opened over the past five years as it tried to build a bigger healthcare business.

In Miami, about 38% of the housing stock is condos, the highest of any major metropolitan area in the U.S. Of those buildings, nearly three-quarters are at least 30 years old. For those that have large repairs looming, many owners are scrambling to sell before Jan. 1 when building reserves must be fully funded to be in compliance with the law.

The Biden administration is preparing to raise tariffs on clean-energy goods from China in the coming days, with the levy on Chinese electric vehicles set to roughly quadruple.

Mortgage rates climbed for most of 2023, at one point reaching nearly 8%—a level not seen in two decades before dropping closer to 6.5%. In 2024, after falling a bit in early March, mortgage rates are now back above 7%.

Earnings per share for companies in the S&P 500 now look to be up 5.2% from a year earlier, better than the 3.4% analysts expected at the end of March, and marking the strongest growth in nearly two years.

The downtown Manhattan availability rate—which includes vacancy and space coming on the market in the next 12 months—increased to 21.3% in the first quarter, compared with 10.3% in early 2020. Average asking rents have fallen to about $57 a square foot from more than $65.

Job growth slowed and unemployment ticked higher last month, marking a break from a string of data showing surprising strength in the labor market.

The length of the average workweek fell last month, to 34.3 from 34.4. The underemployment rate, which includes the unemployed and those marginally attached to the workforce, rose to 7.4%.

As more retail activity goes online with Ecommerce and given the fact that the U.S. is over retailed, mall owners/developers are looking for ways to revitalize and monetize their real estate by adding multifamily to create a mixed-use environment. One of the main drivers of this effort is parking reduction, as developers and retailers have come to the realization that most shopping centers are over parked.

It was a notably ugly April for the major averages, with the Dow losing 5% for its worst monthly performance since September 2022. The S&P 500 slid about 4.2% this month, and the Nasdaq lost 4.4%. The three major averages snapped five-month winning streaks.