When the Fed raised interest rates between 2015 and 2018, it did so gradually—and never more than once every quarter. Under the economic outlook they judged most likely last month, most officials last month “suggested that a faster pace of increases…than in the post-2015 period would likely be warranted,” the minutes said.

Blackstone has agreed to buy rental apartment owner Preferred Apartment Communities in a $5.8 billion deal. Atlanta-based Preferred Apartment owns over 40 rental apartment properties with about 12,000 units in states including Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee. Preferred Apartment also owns 54 shopping centers anchored by grocery stores. About 70% of the deal’s value is in its rental apartments.

There were 23,204 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in January, which is up 29% from the month prior, 139% from the same time a year ago and the highest rate since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Crown Resorts Ltd., one of Australia’s biggest casino operators, said it agreed to a $6.3 billion takeover by Blackstone Inc., following a roughly yearlong effort by the U.S. private-equity giant to acquire the company.

The average net worth of households headed by someone aged 55 to 64 rose by $180,095 between Jan. 1, 2020 and Sept. 30, 2021, an increase of 15.3%.

U.S. inflation accelerated last month to 7.5%, a new four-decade high.

Foreign investment in U.S. commercial property surpassed pre-pandemic levels last year. Pensions, sovereign-wealth funds and other foreign institutions purchased $70.8 billion of U.S. commercial real estate in 2021. That was the highest total since the $94.6 billion invested in 2018, and nearly double the 2020 figure.

For the Super Bowl, analysts anticipate near-record average daily room rates of $445. Occupancy is expected to reach 89% and REVPAR is forecast near $400 a night. If those projections prove accurate, Los Angeles would notch the second-highest average-daily room rates on record for Super Bowl host cities, after Miami in 2020.

Spirit Airlines and Frontier Group are merging in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $6.6 billion.

The world’s biggest shipping lines, flush with cash, are buying their own fleets of cargo planes and adding airlifts for big clients willing to pay extra to get around supply-chain snarls at sea resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Airfreight accounts for less than 1% of global trade by volume but 35% by value.