The Federal Reserve approved plans to begin scaling back its bond-buying stimulus program this month and end it by June, a major step toward withdrawing its aggressive, pandemic-driven economic support amid a recent inflation surge.

The first three quarters of 2021 set a record for commercial property sales activity while prices also reached new highs. A lot of uncertainty still hangs over the office and retail markets, while a full recovery in the hotel business could be years away. But purchases of apartment buildings, life-science labs and industrial properties helped propel commercial sales for the first nine months of this year to $462.1 billion, up 10% from the same nine-month period in 2019.

GDP grew at a historically fast annual rate of 6.7% in the second quarter as an infusion of government stimulus, widespread business reopenings and rising vaccination rates fueled spending. Those spending drivers faded in the third quarter as the U.S. economy grew by 2.0%.

Home-price growth held at a record high in August, as demand from home buyers remained robust despite skyrocketing prices. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which measures average home prices in major metropolitan areas across the nation, rose 19.8% in the year that ended in August.

Modern Land (China), Co. a 21-year-old developer that focuses on green projects, failed to repay a $250 million dollar bond that matured Monday, adding to a string of missed payments by Chinese real-estate companies.

Federal Reserve officials are set to wind down their $120 billion-a-month bond-purchase program in November.

China Evergrande Group made an overdue interest payment of $83.5 million to international bondholders in an unexpected move that allows the property company to stave off a default on about $2.03 billion of dollar bonds.

The American Hotel and Lodging Association estimates the industry lost $49 billion in business-travel revenue in 2020 compared with 2019. It’s also on pace to finish with $10 billion less in business-travel revenue this year compared with 2020.

Apollo Global Management Inc. said it expects its assets under management to double to about $1 trillion by 2026.

Credit-card spending at restaurants and retailers excluding gasoline stations rose 1.5% between August and September. In particular, spending at restaurants and bars rose 2.3%, the data showed, suggesting that customers didn’t let the Delta variant hold them back.