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Kettler names president of development

McLean-based development and property management company announced on Monday that James Nozar has joined the firm as its of development.

Nozar, who has about 20 years of experience as an industry executive, was most recently chief development officer at Method Co. Before that, he was of East+Main, a Massachusetts-based real estate advisory services company, and founding CEO of Tampa, Florida-based Strategic Property Partners, where he spearheaded the initial development phase for Water Street Tampa, a $4 billion, 56-acre waterfront neighborhood.

At Kettler, Nozar will lead development efforts of the Gasworx project in Tampa. Kettler broke ground on the multiphase project in 2023. Axios reports that Kettler and Ybor City developer Darryl Shaw have invested more than $500 million in the project, which will add 5,000 residences, 500,000 square feet of office space and 140,000 square feet of retail to Tampa.

Situated at the edge of Ybor City, Kettler describes the project as “one of [the] most ambitious urban redevelopments in America.” Nozar will also oversee planned future projects in Orlando and St. Petersburg.

“Kettler’s vision and commitment to building communities that blend history, culture and innovation deeply resonate with me,” said Nozar in a statement. “Gasworx represents an opportunity to once again shape Tampa’s urban fabric in meaningful ways. I look forward to working with the team and local stakeholders to execute this vision as well as future Kettler developments nationwide.”’

Kettler founder and CEO Bob Kettler said in a statement that Nozar’s background and “deep industry connections” will aid Kettler in developing communities.

Kettler is focused on expanding its presence in high-growth markets like Florida, said company President Cindy Fisher, and Nozar “brings a proven track record of executing transformative projects. His knowledge of the real estate landscape, combined with his ability to deliver results, will help drive growth and revenue across our portfolio while ensuring Gasworx becomes a landmark destination.”

Founded in 1977 and headquartered in , Kettler is a vertically integrated, mixed-use and multifamily-focused investment firm, real estate and land developer and property management company. Kettler has developed over 25,000 multifamily units, 8 million square feet of commercial space, more than 78,000 homes and many of the D.C. region’s mixed-use communities. The company also manages approximately 30,000 apartments in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions.

US housing market shifts toward buyers as prices cool

Summary

  • becomes more favorable for buyers
  • falling or rising slowly, mainly in South & West
  • More listings, with homes staying unsold longer
  • Sellers cutting prices, offering concessions on deals
  • remains low—only 28% of homes in reach

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Skyrocketing housing values and a shortage of homes on the market gave homeowners the upper hand for years when it came time to sell. That’s no longer a given.

Across the country, it’s getting tougher for sellers to drive a hard bargain. A dearth of home shoppers who can afford to buy and uncertainty about the outlook for the economy, jobs and is putting pressure on sellers to give ground at the negotiating table.

In some markets, mainly in the South and West, homeowners who are eager to sell are more likely to give buyers a better deal. This could include a lower price, up-front money to nudge down the buyer’s mortgage rate, and funds for closing costs and any repairs or improvements that may pop up after the home inspection.

The reasons: Would-be buyers balk at what they view as unreasonable asking prices, while at the same time new construction is giving buyers more options and putting pressure on sellers to make their homes more appealing.

As a result, while the national median home listing price rose slightly in July, some metro areas saw a decline, signaling a reversal in the power dynamic between buyers and sellers. It’s rare to see the type of eye-popping bidding wars that exploded home values by roughly 50% nationally earlier this decade. Low-ball offers are more common.

Despite this hopeful trend, the housing market remains mired in a slump. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes are running about 1.3% below where they were through the first seven months of last year, when they sank to their lowest level in nearly 30 years.

The national median home listing price rose slightly in July from a year earlier to $439,450, according to Realtor.com. The listing company found the most a homebuyer who earns the median U.S. household income can afford to spend on a home is $298,000. The analysis assumes a 20% down payment and a 30-year mortgage at a fixed rate of 6.74%. By those criteria, 7 out of 10 home shoppers are priced out of the market.

Homes linger on the market as sales slow

The housing market has been in a rut since 2022, when mortgage rates began climbing from historic lows. The number of homes available for sale sank while prices kept rising.

Nationally, more homes are going on sale and remaining unsold longer because buyers have been unwilling or unable to make a deal. Active listings — a tally that encompasses all homes on the market except those pending a finalized sale — increased in July for the 21st month in a row, climbing nearly 25% from a year earlier, according to Realtor.com.

The tide turns slowly

The inventory of homes for sale across the U.S. has increased gradually as the market has slowed and is now at a level where supply and demand are more balanced. But in states like Texas and Florida, the number of homes on the market has climbed sharply, partly because those states are hotbeds of new home construction.

Home shoppers may now have more leverage relative to sellers in the South and West, where home inventory has risen in the single digits, compared to pre-pandemic levels. Conditions are tougher in markets in the Midwest and Northeast, where the supply of homes remains 40% and 50% below pre-pandemic levels, respectively, according to Realtor.com.

Sellers feel the pinch and budge on price

After roughly two months on the market and three open houses, Doug McCormick’s home has yet to receive a single offer.

The retired business owner and his wife initially listed the 4-bedroom, 4.5-bath house located in Evergreen, a mountain community about 30 miles west of Denver, for $1.3 million. They lowered their asking price to about $1.28 million. That, too, failed to bring in a buyer.

McCormick, 80, says he’s hoping mortgage rates ease a bit and bring out more buyers. But he’s also considering just renting the property.

“That’s something that’s kind of in the back of my mind,” he said. “I keep reminding myself you only need one buyer.”

McCormick’s situation is not unique. As demand has slowed, more sellers have resorted to lowering their initial asking price — often multiple times — to no avail.

“Even though we are seeing a substantial amount of price reductions, sometimes it’s not enough to move the home, it’s still sitting,” said Annie Foushee, an agent with Redfin in Denver.

The median home listing price in Austin fell 4.9% in July from a year earlier, while in Miami it dropped 4.7%. Among other metro areas that had sharp drops in their listing price were: Chicago (4.4%), Los Angeles (4.2%) and Denver (4%).

When buyers are also sellers

Lindsay Olesberg and her husband, John, know what it’s like to navigate both sides of the housing slump.

The couple listed their 4-bedroom, 3.5-bath home outside Albuquerque for $835,000 in June 2024 after John, a research scientist, got a new job in Texas. The plan: Sell their house, move to Austin and buy a home there. It took more than a year, during which the couple lowered their asking price several times, temporarily took the home off the market and had some offers fall through.

In the end, they agreed to sell for $40,000 below their original listing price.

Buying a home was much easier. The Olesbergs had little trouble finding homes they liked and could afford in Austin, where home inventory was up nearly 60% in July compared to pre-pandemic levels.

They bought a five-bedroom, three-bath house in Austin for $735,000, or $30,000 below its initial listing price. The seller also agreed to cover $1,000 in fees.

“We got less for our house in New Mexico than we would have wanted,” said Lindsay Olesberg, 59, a Bible teacher. “But at the same time, you also knew it was a buyer’s market in Austin, so the prices were coming down.”

Taking homes off the market

In markets where buyers now have the upper hand, sellers who can afford to wait are often opting to pull their listing rather than be pressured into coming way down on price.

Tammy Tullis put her home in the Miami suburb of South Miami on the market in June. But the four-bedroom, 3.5-bath house didn’t receive many offers initially, so she dropped her $2.8 million asking price by $100,000. That helped drive turnout during an open house, but she only received low-ball offers.

“They were like $400,000-$500,000 off the mark,” said Tullis, 51.

Last month, the finance consultant took the listing down. She may relist it sooner, rather than later.

“I want to sell, but I’m not in a rush-rush,” Tullis said.

Lower rates ahead?

The has pushed the to lower interest rates, saying doing so will help the housing market. But homebuyers – and politicians – should keep in mind that the central bank only directly influences short-term rates, while most mortgages are based on the yield of the 10-year Treasury. So, lower mortgage rates wouldn’t be a given, even if the Fed cuts rates next week, as the market expects.

And while lower mortgage rates would boost home shoppers’ purchasing power, they also could bring in more buyers, giving sellers less incentive to keep lowering prices.

Economists generally expect the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain near the mid-6% range this year.

SpaceX, EchoStar strike $17B spectrum deal for Starlink

Elon Musk’s has reached a deal worth about $17 billion with for that it will use to beef up its satellite network.

The deal for EchoStar’s AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses includes up to $8.5 billion in cash and up to $8.5 billion in SpaceX stock. SpaceX will make approximately $2 billion in cash interest payments on EchoStar debt through November 2027.

SpaceX and EchoStar will enter into a long-term commercial agreement which will allow EchoStar’s Boost Mobile subscribers to access SpaceX’s next generation Starlink Direct to Cell service.

Shares of EchoStar surged 19% before the market opened Monday.

Last month  said that it will spend $23 billion to acquire wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar, a significant expansion of its low- and mid-band coverage networks.

EchoStar said that it anticipates that the AT&T deal and the SpaceX transaction will resolve recent inquiries from the Federal Communications Commission about the rollout of 5G technology in the U.S. The had been calling for hearings on whether Echostar was properly using the spectrum that it is now selling, and its efforts to make 5G more available to communities.

EchoStar said Monday that it will use the proceeds from the sale partly to pay down debt. Current operations of Dish TV, Sling and Hughes will not be impacted, the company said.

Arlington pays Amazon HQ2 incentives for first time


SUMMARY:

  • will pay first local over East Coast headquarters
  • Economist notes HQ2 growth slower than expected, but still a positive for the region
  • Construction of HQ2’s second phase, PenPlace, remains on pause

For the first time since approving Amazon’s incentive package for its HQ2 East Coast headquarters in 2019, Arlington County will finally cut Amazon a check — triggered by the county’s hotel tax revenue finally meeting a required threshold.

Amazon opened the first phase of HQ2, the $2.5 billion Metropolitan Park, in Arlington in May 2023. About 8,500 employees currently work out of HQ2 five days a week. The county recently announced that it will award Amazon a grant payment of $81,745, based on the performance of revenue from the county’s Transit Occupancy Tax (TOT), a lodging tax.

In March 2019, the Arlington Board of Supervisors approved a performance agreement making Amazon eligible for incentive payments from the grant when the county’s TOT revenue exceeds a baseline of $24,972,737. This was done with the assumption that Amazon’s new offices would attract more people to the county on business trips, staying at hotels and spending money in the area.

The county’s performance agreement also required Amazon to gradually occupy more and more office space in the county over a 15-year period. While Amazon never had issues meeting the occupancy performance targets, the TOT revenue threshold was not reached until this year, a likely function of the pandemic impairments to the travel and lodging industries. The most recent fiscal year, which ended on June 30, was the first time since the county entered into the agreement with Amazon that its local lodging tax revenue exceeded the baseline amount. (The county’s TOT revenue for FY25 totaled $25.5 million, $544,968 above the baseline.)

“This milestone reflects the positive impact of Amazon’s investments in the county and its position as a significant and valued member of Arlington’s business community,” the county said in a statement.

Destiny Esper, a spokesperson with Arlington County , said the first half of the fiscal year saw continued post-pandemic recovery in business and leisure travel, and that there was “steady activity across Arlington.” She noted Amazon’s presence contributes to weekday demand in National Landing, but added Arlington does not attribute countywide lodging growth to any single employer.

Economist Terry Clower, Chair and professor of public policy at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, says the payment illustrates how well-structured Arlington’s performance agreement was with Amazon.

Unlike many economic development incentive efforts, which often become “corporate giveaways,” he noted, the county was smart to require Amazon to meet certain performance metrics before awarding incentive funding. Too often, Clower added, jurisdictions “write a blank check” to lure companies and then are left waiting a long time for jobs to materialize and revenue targets to be met.

Clower said it’s “good news” that Amazon has reached a point where it has helped generate enough revenue for the county to pay the incentives as obligated.

The first phase of HQ2 includes a 2.5-acre public park and 2.1 million square feet of office space spread across two 22-story office towers. It also features more than 50,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, which is home to 13 local small businesses — the majority of which are women- and minority-owned.

Recent challenges

Despite the touted benefits of Amazon’s second headquarters to the county, HQ2 has hit some roadblocks. When Amazon picked Arlington as the site for HQ2 in 2018 amid a heated national competition among states, Amazon said it expected to create 25,000 jobs by 2030. But in an April 1 application requesting payment of taxpayer-funded incentives from the state, Amazon checked the “moderate” box as a reflection of its confidence that it would meet that job target by 2038. In every previous application filed with the state, Amazon had checked the “high” confidence box.

In its April application to the state, Amazon requested more than $6.4 million from Virginia’s Major Headquarters Workforce Grant Payment, a grant that pays out $22,000 per qualifying job. The average annual wage paid for these positions is above the wage target specified in the agreement of $161,593. The application said that last year, Amazon hired 293 incentive-qualifying employees.

Between 2018 and the end of 2024, Amazon hired 7,232 employees at HQ2 who qualified for incentives, falling short of its goal of 10,000 qualifying workers by 2024.

“While we experienced incremental new job growth in 2024, we exceeded hiring goals in previous years,” Holly Sullivan, Amazon’s vice of worldwide economic development, stated in the document.

In 2023, the company paused construction on HQ2’s second phase, PenPlace, which was set to include 3.3 million square feet of office and retail space spread across three 22-story buildings.

Amazon’s progress with HQ2 has been “slower than I think most people anticipated,” Clower said, noting that HQ2 was likely impacted by economic challenges stemming from the COVID pandemic, as well as Amazon initially overhiring workers during the e-commerce boom that kicked off just before the pandemic. He said the company has still contributed to economic growth in the region, just at a slower pace than some initially anticipated.

“From a local job creation [standpoint], particularly in light of what’s going on with the federal government, I’d love to see Amazon’s hiring pick up in pace to create more opportunities for folks that may be in other sectors so that they can maybe, with a little bit of retraining, be eligible for jobs” with Amazon, Clower said. “However, I would much rather [Amazon] slow the pace of the development of the second building, so that you don’t wind up with a huge piece of inventory being added to the market that’s underutilized.”

Esper, the Arlington Economic Development spokesperson, said that Amazon and the county’s vision “remains intact even as timing evolves.” In a statement, she added, “Amazon’s agreements for HQ2 represent a long-term commitment spanning 20 years. As with any major project or investment of this scale, economic fluctuations are natural and anticipated. Amazon has reiterated its long-term commitment to Arlington and Virginia, continues to meet or exceed its occupancy targets each year, and remains active in the community.”

An Amazon spokesperson said the company had indefinitely paused construction on PenPlace, but stressed that the second phase isn’t dead. The company says it currently has “ample space” to grow at Met Park.

“HQ2 has always been a long-term commitment and we are proud of the progress we have made,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. “In addition to creating thousands of direct and indirect jobs to-date, we’ve invested more than $2.5 billion in capital investments, $1.2 billion to preserve and create over 9,500 affordable housing units and provided $239 million to more than 100 local nonprofits and schools.”

The spokesperson noted the company has so far reached 30% of its hiring goal, and that Amazon has brought “thousands of new direct and indirect jobs to HQ2.”

In June, Arlington’s county board granted a three-year extension to Amazon for plans to develop PenPlace, with a deadline of June 30, 2028, to act on the plan.

Zephyr AI taps new CEO

McLean-based tech announced last week that it has appointed Allen Chao as its new and acquired cancer data company Aster Insights.

Chao — who has over 40 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry — succeeds Jeff Sherman, Zephyr’s co-founder and chief technology officer, who served as CEO in an interim capacity for more than a year. Chao founded Watson Pharmaceuticals in 1984 and served as its CEO and chairman until 2008.

During his time with Watson, Chao grew it from a small drug development company in Corona, California, to a global enterprise with $2.8 billion in annual revenue.

He has spent much of his career supporting cancer research and established the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at UC Irvine in 1994.

“As a longtime champion of the team at Zephyr, I’m excited to be joining the company at a time when our technology puts our products squarely at the forefront of precision medicine,” said Chao in a statement.

The company also stated that Aster Insights, a Tampa, Florida-based company that provides oncology data, is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Zephyr. The financial terms of the were not disclosed. Aster supports Total Cancer Care, the world’s largest and longest-running observational cancer study with more than 400,000 lifetime-consented patients.

Zephyr says its AI-driven platform, combined with Aster’s data, will expand its oncology data capabilities and help lead to expedited drug development, smarter clinical trial design and improved care delivery.

“This acquisition deepens Zephyr’s data advantage and reinforces our commitment to using AI and real-world evidence to unlock more effective, personalized therapies,” said Chao in a statement. “We believe the combination of Zephyr’s platform and Aster Insights’ unparalleled data access positions us to deliver differentiated insights to our life science partners and, ultimately, better patient outcomes.”

The companies have already begun integration efforts. Zephyr did not provide information on the number of its employees.

Founded in 2020, Zephyr AI develops -powered algorithms that can glean insights from health care data. Last year, the company raised $111 million in a Series A funding round from about 30 investors, including Revolution Growth, Eli Lilly & Co., Jeff Skoll, and Epiq Capital Group. In March 2022, Zephyr AI raised $18.5 million in a seed round.

Google hit with $3.5 billion fine from European Union in ad-tech antitrust case

Summary

  • EU regulators fine $3.5B for antitrust violations
  • Penalty tied to favoritism in services
  • Fourth major antitrust penalty for Google from Brussels
  • Commission orders Google to end self-preferencing practices
  • Google to appeal, Trump slams EU over tech regulations

European Union regulators on Friday hit Google with a 2.95 billion euro ($3.5 billion) fine for breaching the bloc’s competition rules by favoring its own digital advertising services, but the bloc’s latest move to crack down on Big Tech companies drew outrage from Donald Trump.

The , the 27-nation bloc’s executive branch and top antitrust enforcer, also ordered the U.S. tech giant to end its “self-preferencing practices” and stop “conflicts of interest” along the advertising technology supply chain.

It’s the fourth time Brussels has sanctioned Google with a multibillion-euro fine in an antitrust case, in a wider battle with regulators that dates back to 2017.

Trump, whose administration has lashed out at the bloc over digital regulations and taxes imposed on U.S. tech companies, said the EU fine was “effectively taking money that would otherwise go to American Investments and Jobs.”

“Very unfair, and the American Taxpayer will not stand for it!” he said in a post on Truth Social. “As I have said before, my Administration will NOT allow these discriminatory actions to stand.”

The Commission said its investigation found that Google “abused its power” by favoring its own online display advertising technology services to the detriment of competitors, online advertisers and publishers.

The investigation focused on Google’s AdX exchange and DFP ad platform, tools that bring together advertisers, who want to market their products, with online publishers, who want to sell commercial space on their websites.

The company has 60 days to come up with proposed remedies.

If it doesn’t come up with “a viable plan, the Commission will not hesitate to impose an appropriate remedy,” Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s executive vice-president overseeing competition affairs, said in a statement posted online.

“At this stage, it appears that the only way for Google to end its conflict of interest effectively is with a structural remedy, such as selling some part of its Adtech business,” Ribera said.

But the Commission said it first wants to “hear and assess” the company’s proposal.

Google said the decision was “wrong” and vowed to appeal.

“It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, the company’s global head of regulatory affairs, said in a statement.

Ribera said that Google’s “illegal practices” resulted in advertisers facing higher marketing costs that they likely passed on to European consumers through higher prices for products and services. At the same time, it also meant lower revenue for publishers, like news sites, which might have resulted in lower quality and higher subscription costs for consumers.

The decision was overdue, coming more than two years after the European Commission announced antitrust charges against Google. It also comes amid renewed tensions between Brussels and Washington over trade, tariffs and technology regulation.

The commission had said in 2023 that the only way to satisfy antitrust concerns about Google’s lucrative digital ad business was to sell off parts of its business.

Top EU officials have previously said that they were seeking a forced sale because past cases that ended with fines and requirements for Google to stop anti-competitive practices have not worked, allowing the company to continue its behavior in a different form.

The commission’s penalty follows a formal investigation into online display advertising that it opened in June 2021, which found that since 2014, Google “abused” its dominant position in the ad-technology ecosystem.

Online display ads are banners and text that appear on websites and are personalized based on an internet user’s browsing history.

Mulholland said, “There’s nothing anticompetitive in providing services for ad buyers and sellers, and there are more alternatives to our services than ever before.”

Cori Crider, a senior fellow at the Future of Technology Institute think tank, said, “Europe made an important stand for the rule of law today by pressing ahead with this first-step fine in the face of Trump and Big Tech’s bullying.”

But “only a break-up will fix Google’s monopoly,” said Crider, who’s also an honorary professor at UCL Laws. “If Europe’s enforcers flinch on a break-up in the end, Google will rightly chalk a fine up as a win.”

While the EU’s fine is a huge sum, it’s pocket change for Google, which earned $28.2 billion in revenue in the second quarter.

Google is also facing pressure on the other side of the Atlantic over its ad-tech business.

In a separate U.S. case, the Justice Department asked a federal judge in May to force the company to sell off its AdX and DFP services. The case is scheduled to move to the penalty phase, known as remedy hearings, later this month.

The Commission said its finding that Google abused its dominance will be important for the remedy hearings because it’s the same conduct that the Justice Department was investigating.

Authorities in Canada and Britain have also targeted Google over its conduct in the digital ad industry.

Google has already avoided a breakup earlier this week in the U.S., where it’s under fire on a separate front after a U.S. federal judge found it had an illegal monopoly in online search. On Tuesday, the judge ordered a shake-up of its search engine but rebuffed the government’s attempt to force a sale of its Chrome browser.

Stocks wobble as Wall Street questions whether the US job market has slowed by enough or too much

Summary

  • falls 0.5% after hitting record high Thursday
  • Dow drops 245 points, slips 0.2%
  • Weak jobs report raises concerns about slowdown risk
  • Treasury yields tumble on softer signals
  • Investors weigh Fed rate cuts vs. downturn fears

NEW YORK (AP) — is drifting higher on Thursday as the countdown ticks to an update on the U.S. job market coming Friday, one that could clear the way for the cuts to interest rates that investors love.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% as it clawed back more of its losses since setting an all-time high last week. The Industrial Average was up 180 points, or 0.4%, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% higher.

Stocks got some lift from easing pressure from the bond market, where Treasury yields fell following the latest reports on the U.S. job market to come in worse than economists expected. One report suggested employers, not including the government, nearly halved their last month. Another said that more workers applied for benefits last week in an indication of rising layoffs.

Neither number is flashing a recession, and a third report on activity for businesses in the information and other services industries showed a stronger-than-expected acceleration of growth.

The upside for investors of a slowdown in the job market is that it could push the to consider cutting its main interest rate for the first time this year at its next meeting in a couple weeks. Such cuts can give the economy and job market a kickstart, though they can also push inflation higher.

So far this year, the Fed has been keeping its main interest rate on hold because it’s been more worried about inflation potentially worsening because of Donald Trump’s tariffs than about the job market.

“The year started with strong job growth, but that momentum has been whipsawed by uncertainty,” according to Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP. She said several things could be behind the slowdown, including ”labor shortages, skittish consumers, and AI disruptions.”

A more comprehensive report on the job market’s health during August will arrive on Friday from the U.S. , and it will likely carry much weight with the Fed. Ahead of it, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.19% from 4.22% late Wednesday.

Last month’s grim jobs report, which included massive downward revisions for June and May, sent financial markets spiraling and prompted Trump to fire the head of the agency that compiles the monthly data.

On Wall Street, American Eagle Outfitters jumped 32.3% after the teen fashion retailer reported more than double the profit that analysts had expected for its latest quarter. It benefited from a frenzy of media attention in late July over a provocative advertising campaign featuring actor Sydney Sweeney.

The ads — which featured the tagline “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” — sparked a debate about race, Western beauty standards, and the backlash to “woke” American politics and culture.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise added 5.2% following its own better-than-expected profit report.

T. Rowe Price climbed 6% after announcing a deal where Goldman Sachs plans to buy up to $3.5 billion of its stock, or up to 3.5% of all its shares. They’re teaming up to offer access to some of the private markets where Goldman Sachs is an expert to the retirement savers and other investors that T. Rowe Price serves. Goldman Sachs added 1.3%.

On the losing side of Wall Street was Salesforce, which was one of the heaviest weights on the market despite reporting a better profit than analysts expected. Analysts called the performance solid but suggested some of it may have come from one-time factors. Salesforce, which helps businesses manage their customers, slumped 5.8%.

C3.ai fell 3.2% after reporting a larger loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Chairman Thomas Siebel called the results “completely unacceptable,” while announcing a new chief executive for the company, Stephen Ehikian. He was most recently acting administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration.

Figma tumbled 17.9% even though the company, which offers a design and product development platform, reported results for the latest quarter that roughly matched analysts’ expectations. Its forecasts for upcoming revenue also came close to analysts’, but expectations may have been even higher given that its stock came into the day at more than double its $33 IPO price from July.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia.

Indexes dropped 1.3% in Shanghai and 1.1% in Hong Kong but jumped 1.5% in Tokyo.

475 detained in record immigration raid at Hyundai site

Summary

  • 475 people detained in
  • Raid targeted electric vehicle plant site
  • Largest single-site enforcement in HSI’s 20-year history
  • Probe focused on alleged illegal practices
  • South Korea says many of its citizens were detained

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Immigration authorities said Friday they detained 475 people, most of them South Korean nationals, when hundreds of federal agents raided the sprawling manufacturing site in Georgia where Korean automaker Hyundai makes .

Steven Schrank, the lead Georgia agent of Investigations, said during a news conference Friday that the raid resulted from a monthslong investigation into allegations of at the site and was the “largest single site enforcement operation” in the agency’s two-decade history.

The Thursday raid targeted one of Georgia’s largest and most high-profile manufacturing sites, where Hyundai Motor Group a year ago began manufacturing electric vehicles at a $7.6 billion plant west of Savannah that employs about 1,200 people. Gov. Brian Kemp and other officials have touted it as the state’s largest-ever largest project.

Agents focused their operation on an adjacent plant that’s still under construction at which Hyundai has partnered with LG Energy Solution to produce batteries batteries that power EVs.

South Korean government expresses ‘concern’

The South Korean government expressed “concern and regret” over the operation targeting its citizens.

“The business activities of our investors and the rights of our nationals must not be unjustly infringed in the process of U.S. law enforcement,” South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jaewoong said in a televised statement from Seoul.

Lee said the ministry is dispatching diplomats from its embassy in Washington and consulate in Atlanta to the site, and planning to form an on-site response team.

Immigration attorney Charles Kuck said two of his clients who were detained had arrived from South Korea under a visa waiver program that enables them to travel for tourism or business for stays of 90 days or less without obtaining a visa.

“They were both engaging in normal visa waiver activities, still lawfully here doing the activities that are lawful for a visa waiver to do,” Kuck said.

One of his clients, he said, has been in the U.S. for a couple of weeks, while the other has been in the country for about 45 days. He did not provide details about the kind of work they were doing but said they had been planning to go home soon.

Schrank told reporters in Savannah that while some of the detained workers illegally crossed the U.S. border, others had entered the country legally but had expired visas or had entered on a visa waiver that prohibited them from working. He said some of those detained worked for the battery manufacturer, while others were employed by contractors and subcontractors at the construction site.

Schrank said he didn’t know precisely how many of the 475 detained were Korean nationals, but that they made up a majority. No one has yet been charged with any crimes, he said, but the investigation is ongoing.

“This was not a immigration operation where agents went into the premises, rounded up folks, and put them on buses,” Schrank said. “This has been a multi-month criminal investigation where we have developed evidence and conducted interviews, gathered documents and presented that evidence to the court in order to obtain a judicial search warrant.”

He said most of the detainees were taken to an immigration detention center in Folkston, Georgia, near the Florida state line.

has undertaken sweeping ICE operations

Donald Trump’s administration has undertaken sweeping ICE operations as part of a mass deportation agenda. Immigration officers have raided farms, construction sites, restaurants and auto repair shops.

The Pew Research Center, citing preliminary Census Bureau data, says the U.S. labor force lost more than 1.2 million immigrants from January through July. That includes people who are in the country illegally as well as legal residents.

The Democratic Party of Georgia on Friday condemned the raid, with its chair, Charlie Bailey, calling the raids, “politically-motivated fear tactics designed to terrorize people who work hard for a living, power our economy and contribute to the communities across Georgia that they have made their homes.”

The Hyundai site sits on 3,000 acres (1,214 hectares) in a largely rural area of Bryan County, drawing in workers from several surrounding counties and communities including the city of Savannah, located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) away.

Hyundai began producing electric vehicles at the site last September. A few months later, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chairman Euisun Chung during a White House appearance with Trump credited the president with the company’s decision to create more American jobs by building an EV factory in Georgia.

“Our decision to invest in Savannah, Georgia, creating more than 8,500 American jobs, was initiated during my meeting with President Trump in Seoul in 2019,” Chung said at the March event.

Battery plant slated to open next year

The battery plant operated by HL-GA Battery Co., a joint venture by Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, is slated to open next year.

In a statement to The Associated Press, LG said it was “closely monitoring the situation and gathering all relevant details.” It said it couldn’t immediately confirm how many of its employees or Hyundai workers had been detained.

“Our top priority is always ensuring the safety and well-being of our employees and partners. We will fully cooperate with the relevant authorities,” the company said.

Operations at Hyundai’s EV manufacturing plant weren’t interrupted by the raid, said plant spokesperson Bianca Johnson. Hyundai Motor Company said in a statement Friday it was “working to understand the specific circumstances” of the raid and detentions.

“As of today, it is our understanding that none of those detained is directly employed by Hyundai Motor Company,” the company’s statement said. “We prioritize the safety and well-being of everyone working at the site and comply with all laws and regulations wherever we operate.”

HL-GA Battery Co. did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. In a statement Thursday, the company said it’s “cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities.”

Koreans are rarely caught up in immigration enforcement compared to other nationalities. Only 46 Koreans were deported during the 12-month period ended Sept. 30 out of more than 270,000 removals for all nationalities, according to ICE.

Those arrested Thursday who fight deportation may be detained as their cases wind through immigration court. The number of people in ICE custody topped 60,000 in August, an all-time high.

Amazon to build $16M+ distribution center in Amherst

Amazon.com Services has selected for the site of a $16 million-plus, 78,000-square-foot distribution center, which county officials say will bring dozens of local jobs to the region.

The county’s authority announced this week that has purchased the largest lot in the Amelon Commerce Center — a 120-acre industrial park mostly owned by the . The EDA sold the 26-acre site to Amazon in late August.

“We are excited to welcome this internationally recognized company to the Amelon Commerce Center,” said Victoria Hanson, executive director of the EDA, in a statement. “Amazon’s decision to invest in Amherst County and the region highlights the strength of our economy and the advantages of our transportation network.”

The EDA graded the site in 2023 using local funds in combination with a grant from the state’s GO Virginia economic development program. In addition to creating jobs, the EDA says the site will support efforts to “provide fast delivery and great service to the region.”

Amazon declined to provide project specifics or an estimated timeline, with a spokesperson saying more details will be shared at a later time.

Since 2010, Amazon has invested more than $135 billion in Virginia, including infrastructure and compensation to employees, and has created more than 42,000 full and part-time jobs.

In other news regarding the Amelon Commerce Center, Hanson says the EDA is still looking for tenants or purchasers for a 45,000-square-foot spec shell building the county finished building in December 2024. The building, which is still vacant, could be occupied by up to four tenants and rests on an 11.5-acre site within the industrial park.

Hiring stalls with US companies reluctant to expand in an uncertain economic landscape

Summary

  • U.S. economy added just 22,000 jobs last month
  • slowed from 79,000 jobs added in July
  • rate rose to 4.3%, Labor Dept. reports
  • Signs cooling amid economic uncertainty
  • policies weigh on hiring outlook

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added just 22,000 jobs last month as the labor market continued to cool amid uncertainty over Donald Trump’s economic policies.

Hiring decelerated from 79,000 in July, the said Friday, and came in below the roughly 80,000 economists had expected for August. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3%, also worse than expected and the highest level since 2021.

When the Labor Department put out a disappointing a month ago, an enraged President Donald Trump responded by firing the economist in charge of compiling the numbers and nominating a loyalist to replace her.

Talking to reporters Thursday night at a dinner with wealthy tech executives, Trump had seemed to shrug off whatever hiring numbers would come out Friday. “The real numbers that I’m talking about are going to be whatever it is, but will be in a year from now,” the president said.

Factories shed 12,000 jobs in August, the fourth straight month that manufacturers have cut payrolls. Construction companies cut 7,000 jobs, and the federal government 15,000.

Healthcare and social assistance companies – a category that spans hospital to daycare centers – added nearly 47,000 jobs last month and now account for 87% of the private-sector jobs created in 2025.

Labor Department revisions lopped 21,000 jobs off June and July payrolls and revealed that employers had actually cut 13,000 jobs in June, the first monthly job losses since December 2020 when the job market was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

So far this year the economy is generating fewer than 75,000 new jobs a month, less than half the 168,000 jobs per month added last year and not even a quarter of the 400,000 jobs added monthly in the hiring boom of 2021-2023.

The U.S. job market has lost momentum this year, partly because of the lingering effects of 11 interest rate hikes by the Fed’s inflation fighters in 2022 and 2023 and partly because Trump’s policies, including his sweeping tariffs on imports from almost every country on earth, have created uncertainty that leaves managers reluctant to make hiring decisions.

“The warning bell that rang in the labor market a month ago just got louder,’ Olu Sonola, head of U.S economic research at Fitch Rates, wrote in a commentary. “It’s hard to argue that tariff uncertainty isn’t a key driver of this weakness.”

Democrats were quick to pounce on the report as evidence that Trump’s policies were damaging the economy and hurting Americans.

“Americans cannot afford any more of Trump’s disastrous economy. Hiring is frozen, jobless claims are rising, and the unemployment rate is now higher than it has been in years,” said Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee. “The president is squeezing every wallet as he chases an illegal tariff agenda that is hiking costs, spooking investment, and stunting domestic manufacturing.”

Workers’ average hourly earnings rose 0.3% from July and 3.7% from August 2024, exactly what forecasters expected. The year-over-year figure is nearing the 3.5% that many economists see as consistent with the ‘s 2% inflation target.

The weak numbers make it all but certain that Federal Reserve will cut its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting, Sept. 16-17. Under chair Jerome Powell, the Fed has been reluctant to cut rates until it sees what impact Trump’s import taxes have on inflation.

Trump has repeatedly pressured Powell to lower rates, and has sought to fire one Fed governor, Lisa Cook, over allegations of mortgage fraud in what Cook claims is a pretext to gain control over the central bank.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits — a proxy for layoffs — rose last week to the highest level since June, though the number of claims remained within a healthy range.

The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said Wednesday that U.S.-based employers have announced more than 892,000 jobs cuts this year through August, more than the 761,000 reported for all 12 months of 2024.

After seeing the weak July jobs numbers, Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, baselessly claiming the hiring report had been rigged to hurt him politically.

He has nominated a partisan idealogue, E.J. Antoni, to replace her. But for now, pending Antoni’s confirmation by the Senate, the jobs report is in the hands of the acting BLS commissioner, William Wiatrowski, a career Labor Department official.

Economists and others familiar with how the jobs numbers are collected have expressed confidence that Labor Department procedures will keep the data are safe from political interference.

The revisions are standard practice, and necessary because many companies surveyed by the government submit their responses late or correct what they’ve already sent in.

Government economists are also contending with a big drop in the share of companies that respond to the surveys. A decade ago, about 60% of companies surveyed responded. Now only about 40% do.

And it’s an international problem for data collectors, especially since COVID-19. The United Kingdom even suspended publication of an official unemployment rate because of inadequate responses.

“I remember being at an international conference where the chief statistician of the Russian Republic was complaining about how the Russians don’t want to complete their surveys,” William Beach, BLS commissioner from 2019 to 2023, said in an interview last month. “What could he do? If you can’t compel completion in Russia, you can’t compel it anywhere.”