What we’re reading (2/17)
“U.S. Retail Sales Rose Strongly On Stimulus In January” (Wall Street Journal). “Retail sales, a measure of purchases at stores, at restaurants and online, rose by a seasonally adjusted 5.3% in January from a month earlier, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. The increase followed three months of decline during the holiday season. It was the strongest gain since last June, when the economy was in the process of reopening from pandemic-related closures.”
“Household Debt Rises To $14.6 Trillion Due To Record-Breaking Rise In Mortgage Loans” (CNBC). “Total consumer debt rose to nearly $14.6 trillion as 2020 came to a close, pushed by a record-breaking rise for mortgages in the red-hot housing market, according to a Federal Reserve report Wednesday.”
“Investors Are Bullish On Milan” (Dealbreaker). “The man who helped save the Euro has bond investors in a frenzy. Just a few days after Mario Draghi was sworn in as Italy’s new prime minister, the country’s 10-year bond offering drew a record €110 billion of orders on Tuesday.”
“Verizon Climbs 4% After Warren Buffett Reveals Nearly $9 billion Investment” (Business Insider). “Verizon gained as much as 3.8% on Wednesday after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway unveiled a multibillion-dollar stake in the telecom giant. The conglomerate revealed it added 147 million of Verizon's shares to its holdings in the quarter that ended December 31, according to a 13-F filing published Tuesday. The purchase amounted to roughly $8.6 billion in stock.”
“If Work Is Going Remote, Why Is Big Tech Still Building?” (Wired). “A surprising element of the pandemic is the endurance of tech’s real estate ambitions. Outside of San Jose, Google said in October that it would expand its existing office leases on the San Francisco waterfront by nearly a third, and would continue major new developments in Mountain View and Sunnyvale. The plans were conceived before the pandemic, but together they anticipate decades of growth.”
