—— Amazon Alexa realizes real-life imitation; Starwood packaged and sold 3,000 single-family portfolios; the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion protection; Starwood packaged and sold 3,000 single-family portfolios; private equity consortium acquired Zendesk for $10.2 billion; Best on record; Chevron moves out of California headquarters after 140 years; Barclays buys UK mortgage lender for $2.8 billion.
1. Starwood packaged to sell 3,000 single-family portfolio
Starwood Capital Group plans to sell two single-family rental portfolios, including more than 3,000 detached properties, for about $1 billion as the U.S. housing market cools, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is discussing a sale with a consulting firm.
Starwood, led by Barry Sternlicht, is one of the largest apartment owners in the United States. The company has been very aggressive in buying properties and renting them out over the past two years.
The company now has 15,000 single-family homes and 100,000 condo units, Barry told Bloomberg. With mortgage rates rising, rental apartments and single-family homes may be in increasing demand.
The CEO of single-family homeowners firm Tricon Residential told investors last month that the value of the residential property portfolio has fallen 10 percent from its peak, and signs of a cooling housing market are everywhere.
Higher interest rates make some first-time buyers likely to continue to choose rental
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2. Private consortium buys Zendesk for $10.2 billion
This week, a private consortium led by Hellman & Friedman LLC and Permira bought publicly traded software company Zendesk for $10.2 billion in what is expected to be one of the biggest acquisitions of the year.
The purchase price of $77.50 per share is 34% higher than Thursday’s closing price. However, Zendesk rejected a $17 billion acquisition offer in February, and the market entered a severe correction.
Zendesk, founded in 2007, mainly helps companies improve their interaction and communication with customers. According to its website, Zendesk employs 5,450 people worldwide and has more than 160,000 paying customers.
Twitter adjusts to Apple’s new privacy rules, revenue rises in Q4
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3. U.S. Supreme Court overturns the constitutional right to abortion protection
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which means that abortion will no longer be a constitutionally protected right, and U.S. states will have the power to determine the legality of abortion.
That means the 33 million American women who are pregnant will not be able to have legal abortions in the states where they live.
At present, 22 states in the United States prohibit abortion, 4 states are about to enact laws prohibiting abortion, 16 states allow abortion, and the remaining 8 states have not made a final decision.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has said that abortion must be a legal right for women as long as he remains in office.
16 U.S. states still allow abortion
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4. U.S. stocks up 6% for the best week
According to the latest data released today by the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. CPI rose 7.5% in January from a year ago, up from 7% in December, and set a new record in 40 years.
This week, as the market gradually digested recent economic data and the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates by 75 basis points, U.S. stocks ushered in a wave of strong gains, with a weekly gain of more than 6%.
Today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 2.7%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite gained 3.1% and 3.3%, respectively.
Luc Filip, investment director at SYZ Private Banking, believes that the various data show that the US economy is cooling, but this is actually a good thing, because inflation is likely to fall.
However, Matt Stucky, chief investment manager at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management, warned investors that this week’s rally does not mean the stock market has bottomed and the Fed needs to collect more Only after there is more evidence can the rate increase be reduced, and chasing highs needs to be cautious.
Last month, the S&P 500 recovered to 4,100 from 3,800, but then made a new low of 3,700
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5. Chevron moves out of California headquarters
This week, energy giant Chevron said it plans to sell various California headquarters locations and is willing to pay to help employees move south to Texas.
As the second-largest oil company in the United States, Chevron has been based in California for more than 140 years. The company has said it is willing to reimburse employees who voluntarily move to Houston and will scale back its Bay Area footprint.
Chevron spokesman Braden Reddall (Braden Reddall) said that the current real estate market provides a good opportunity for the company to relocate, and the company will use this opportunity to fine-tune its operations and office footprint.
Chevron to move into former Enron headquarters in Houston
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6. Barclays to buy UK mortgage lender
This week, Barclays bought mortgage lender Kensington Mortgage Company from Blackstone and Sixth Street Partners for $2.8 billion, hoping to compete in the UK home loan market.
In 2014, Blackstone and Sixth Street bought Kensington for $300 million. Kensington’s business is primarily through the securitization of mortgage-backed loans and the issuance of bonds to investors.
Revenues at Barclays’ UK home loan division rose 5% in the first quarter as interest rates rose. On the other hand, inflation has weakened the spending power of British citizens, and the economy is also in decline.
Rising interest rates will increase mortgage spread income on the books, but reduce application demand
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7. Credit Suisse loses more than $2 billion
On Wednesday, Rohit Prasad, the scientist-in-charge of Amazon’s Alexa product development, presented a video at Amazon’s re:MARS conference in which the Alexa product successfully imitated the voice of a little boy’s late grandmother He tells stories.
Rohit revealed that Amazon is using artificial intelligence technology to train Alexa to imitate the voice of a real person. Currently, Alexa can complete the imitation one minute after analyzing a voice.
He believes that although artificial intelligence cannot erase the pain of losing relatives and friends, it can help them retain their memories, and artificial intelligence will soon become an indispensable part of our lives.
Amazon wants to incorporate Alexa’s AI technology into more products
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The content of this article comes from various financial news media such as The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg