A California state law is set to raise fast-food workers’ wages in April to $20 an hour. Some restaurants there are already laying off staff, halted hiring or are scaling back workers’ hours as they try to cut costs.

Real-estate firm Compass increase; green up pointing triangle said it reached a $57.5 million settlement over allegations that it was part of a conspiracy to keep real-estate commissions high, the first big brokerage to reach such an agreement since the National Association of Realtors’ landmark settlement last week.

Vitruvian Partners, an investment firm with $17.5 billion of assets under management, is exploring options including the sale of a minority stake. The firm has held discussions about a potential transaction with investors including Blue Owl Capital and Blackstone.

Executives of publicly traded hotel real estate investment trusts say they’re actively engaging in opportunities to both buy and sell, and the second half of 2024 could bring increased competition for assets as investors have more conviction to participate in the market.

Pings and GPS signals from shoppers’ cellphones tell retailers not only how many people visit a mall or strip center a day, but also what time they go, how long they stay, where they shop and how many times a year they are likely to come back.

Home prices and apartment rents in Austin, Texas, have fallen more than anywhere else in the country, after a period of overbuilding and a slowdown in job and population growth. Rents are down 7% while more home buyers searching sales listings are looking to move away from the Austin area than looking to move to it.

While the S&P 500 is up 8% year to date, total money funds added more than $150 billion in assets through the first two months of 2024, or about $50 billion more than they did in the same period last year.

Median rents in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Northwest Queens hit record highs in February as New Yorkers grapple with an ongoing affordability crisis. New lease signings also climbed, setting year-over-year records in Manhattan and Queens and the second-highest record for Brooklyn.

Choice Hotels is abandoning its hostile $8 billion takeover bid for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.

A record share of 401(k) account holders took early withdrawals from their accounts last year for financial emergencies. Overall, 3.6% of plan participants did so last year, up from 2.8% in 2022 and a prepandemic average of about 2%.