Interesting excerpt... "Emporium Centre San Francisco’s auction follows the 2023 decision by owners Brookfield Properties and Westfield to walk away from their debt, citing “challenging operating conditions in downtown San Francisco.” "

And thanks to the wrinklies who cook up the well-composed templates that say what we want in legalese most of us don't speak.

things look good

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Institutional ownership increased from 87.4 M shares as of June 13 to 97.6 M shares as of June 30

Bernie's legacy lives on

The county of Los Angeles has tentatively agreed to buy the Gas Company Tower, a prominent office skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles, for $215 million in a foreclosure sale.

The price is a deep discount from its appraised value of $632 million in 2020, underscoring how much downtown office values have fallen in recent years.

LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England has cut interest rates for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 as inflationary pressures in the economy have eased.

In a statement Thursday, the bank said that by a 5-4 margin, its policymaking panel backed a quarter-point reduction in its main interest rate to 5%, from the 16-year high of 5.25%.

It's the latest central bank to cut interest rates following a long stretch of increases. The U.S. Federal Reserve has yet to take the step but many think it will be ready to next month.

Many economists thought that the Bank of England, which is independent of government, would join the Fed in keeping rates on hold once again given persistent price pressures in the services sector, which accounts for around 80% of the British economy.

... Though those concerns remain, certainly among the four opting to keep borrowing rates on hold, the majority on the panel think the hard medicine of higher borrowing costs has worked, with inflation in the U.K overall down at the bank’s target of 2%.

“Inflationary pressures have eased enough that we’ve been able to cut interest rates today,” said Bank Gov. Andrew Bailey, who voted for a cut. “But we need to make sure inflation stays low, and be careful not to cut interest rates too quickly or by too much. Ensuring low and stable inflation is the best thing we can do to support economic growth and the prosperity of the country.”

Bailey’s comment suggests that interest rates will not be falling dramatically over coming months, certainly nowhere near the pace that the bank had hiked them in recent years.

Central banks around the world dramatically increased borrowing costs from near zero during the coronavirus pandemic when prices started to shoot up, first as a result of supply chain issues built up during the pandemic and then because of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine which pushed up energy costs.

Though no one is anticipating rates to fall to those previous lows, there are widespread expectations that the bank will cut again in coming months, especially as its forecasts suggest inflation will be below target in the next couple of years, despite a modest increase in the second half of the year.

“But ultimately it is the data that will determine how interest rates evolve from here, with the bank hoping its conviction that underlying inflation pressures are fading will be vindicated,” said Luke Bartholomew, deputy chief economist at abrdn, formerly known as Aberdeen Asset Management.

The cut — and the potential of future cuts — are welcome news to millions of mortgage holders, certainly those whose borrowing costs track the bank’s headline rate, though it will likely mean that the savings rates offered by banks will be reduced.

David Hollingworth, associate director at L&C Mortgages, said the prospect of further rate cuts will help boost consumer confidence and that could help the housing market.

“That will be important reassurance to many that have been scarred by the turbulent and volatile periods in the mortgage market over the last couple of years," he said.

Higher interest rates — which cool the economy by making it more expensive to borrow — have helped ease inflation, but they’ve weighed on the British economy, which has barely grown since the pandemic rebound.

Critics of the Bank of England say it has being overly cautious about inflation in recent months and that it had maintained high interest rates for too long, unnecessarily harming the economy. Borrowing costs had been held at 5.25% since August last year, even though inflation was clearly on a downtrend while the economy stagnated.

It is a charge that’s also been leveled against the U.S. Federal Reserve, which kept rates unchanged on Wednesday. It is widely anticipated that the Fed will

Other central banks, including the European Central Bank, have opted to cut rates but are doing so cautiously. July 31, 2024|Updated August 1, 2024 8:00 a.m. PAN PYLAS

i'm curious how much it's grown

I think these Trump/Kamala tweets have 1 important message with 2 secondary meanings:

1. Nothing big will happen before the November 5th US general election. There's too much on the line, politically, for the powers that be.
2. He's simply posting who he thinks will win the November election, not who he's actually advocating, perhaps even indicating Trump is evil (666).
3. RC sex-related tweets have been associated with price improvement, so perhaps RC expects a Kamala administration to benefit Gamestop and/or his broader plans. Also there's no US presidential election in 2069, with 2068 & 2072 being the closest. Sorry Greg.

• Following the assassination attempt, RC tweeted "Trump 2024 🇺🇸": https://nitter.poast.org/ryancohen/status/1812259501665648873#m The shooting did result in rampant speculation it'd push voters in Trump's favor, and perhaps RC agreed. This tweet did result in a shitstorm of WTF-RC & anti-RC sentiment in the GME community, though, leading to the next tweet...
• 4 days later he tweeted "Trump" literally 665 more times: https://nitter.poast.org/ryancohen/status/1813687894324002891#m for a grand total of 666 instances of "Trump" tweeted by RC - possibly indicating RC thinks Trump is the antichrist/evil but is still projected to win.
• Finally today he tweeted "Kamala 2069" after Biden dropped out: https://nitter.poast.org/ryancohen/status/1815538228222681296#m The tides have shifted, Kamala has massive momentum, and RC now expects Harris to win in November.

Other speculation: His picture with Javier Milei, president of Argentina, was bizzare. Policy & personality aside, Milei won the November 19, 2023 elections and is an outspoken supporter of cryptocurrency. Could this be another timeline and/or blockchain clue?

Two of the largest banks in the US are declaring a loss on a whopping $3.5 billion in debts that customers can’t pay back.

JPMorgan Chase says its net charge-offs, which are delinquent debts that banks do not expect to receive, hit $2.2 billion in the second quarter of the year.

That’s a $200 million increase from the previous quarter and an $800 million increase from Q2 of 2023.

Meanwhile, Wells Fargo says its net charge-offs surged from $764 million in Q2 of 2023 to $1.3 billion last quarter – a 70% increase.

Although the pace of inflation has reduced, Wells Fargo’s chief financial officer Michael Santomassimo says many customers are clearly struggling as their credit card balances rise and savings dwindle, reports the New York Times.

“[Inflation is] still cumulatively having a bit impact. The folks on the lower end of the wealth or income spectrum are struggling more than folks that are on the higher end.”

In addition to its charge-offs, JPMorgan declared an additional $500 million in losses from failing mortgage investments.

US banks have been sounding the alarm on their customers’ growing credit card balances and issues in the commercial real estate industry since last year.

In its new report, Wells Fargo says it earned a Q2 profit of $4.9 billion, although the bank’s shares tumbled 6% on Friday after net interest income fell short of estimates.

JPMorgan Chase reported a quarterly profit of $13.1 billion as its stock hovers near its all-time high.

Once taboo but now all the rage.

Ownership pie chart

Ownership table

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With main reddit sub devolving in whatever that shit is, what are people here thinking about it?

Looks like momentum was lost? Was the 3b worth it from shareholder perspective?

Kinda hard to accept the sub justifying considering the squeeze was stated the goal on there, esp in context of DRS that was essentially undone.

Some background: https://www.youtube.com/live/CKX9J9rb7uc

Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin at current age wearing a generic fast food worker uniform standing at order counter of fast food restaurant...