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Stocks, bonds and the dollar drift after the latest downgrade to US government’s credit rating

SUMMARY:

  • U.S. , bonds and dollar value fell Monday morning after said the U.S. government doesn’t deserve a top-tier “Aaa” rating
  • Losses were significant at start of trading, but improved by afternoon

NEW YORK (AP) — After recovering from an initial jolt, U.S. stocks, bonds and the value of the U.S. dollar drifted through a quiet Monday following the latest reminder that the U.S government may be hurtling toward an unsustainable mountain of debt.

The S&P 500 edged up by 0.1% after Moody’s Ratings became the last of the three major credit-rating agencies to say the U.S. federal government no longer deserves a top-tier “Aaa” rating. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 137 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite inched up by less than 0.1%.

Moody’s pointed to how the U.S. government continues to borrow more and more money to pay for its expenses, with political bickering making it difficult to either rein in Washington’s spending or raise its revenue in order to get its ballooning debt under more control.

They’re serious problems, but nothing Moody’s said is new, and critics have been railing against Washington’s inability to control its debt for many years. Standard & Poor’s lowered its credit rating for the U.S. government in 2011.

Because the issues are so well known already, investors have likely already accounted for them, according to Brian Rehling, head of global fixed income strategy and other analysts at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. They’re expecting “limited additional market impact” following the initial reactions to the Moody’s move.

Stocks and U.S. government bond prices at first fell sharply early in Monday’s trading, but they trimmed their losses as the day progressed. The S&P 500 went from a loss of 1.1% to a modest gain of 0.2% before drifting through the afternoon.

The move by Moody’s essentially warns investors globally not to lend to the U.S. government at such low interest rates, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury briefly jumped above 4.55% early Monday morning. That number shows how much in interest the U.S. government has to pay in order to borrow money for 10 years, and it was up sharply from 4.43% late Friday. But it later regressed to 4.45% as more calm returned to the market.

The yield on a 30-year Treasury bond briefly leaped above 5% before likewise receding, up from less than 4% in September.

The downgrade by Moody’s comes ahead of a tense period for Washington, where it’s set to debate potential cuts in tax rates that could suck away more revenue, as well as the nation’s limit on how much it can borrow.

If Washington has to pay more in interest to borrow cash to pay its bills, that could filter out and cause interest rates to rise for U.S. households and businesses too, in everything from mortgage rates to auto loan rates to . That in turn could slow the economy.

The downgrade adds to a long list of concerns that have already weighed on the market. Chief among them is President Donald Trump’s trade war, which itself has forced investors globally to question whether the U.S. bond market and the U.S. dollar still deserve their reputations as some of the safest places to park cash during a crisis.

The U.S. economy seems to be holding up OK so far despite the pressures of , and hopes are high that Trump will eventually relent on his tariffs after striking trade deals with other countries. That’s a major reason the S&P 500 has rallied back within 3% of its all-time high after falling roughly 20% below that market last month.

But big companies have been warning recently they’re uncertain about the future. Walmart, for example, said recently that it will likely have to raise prices because of tariffs. That caused Trump over the weekend to criticize Walmart and demand it and China “eat the tariffs.”

Walmart’s stock slipped 0.1% Monday.

Other big retailers on the schedule to report their latest quarterly results this upcoming week include Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s and TJX Cos.

On the winning end of was Novavax, which rose 15% after it said U.S. regulators approved its COVID-19 vaccine under some conditions. The approval triggered a $175 million milestone payment under the company’s collaboration agreement with Sanofi.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 5.22 points to 5,963.60. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 137.33 to 42,792.07, and the Nasdaq composite rose 4.36 to 19,215.46.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed amid mostly modest movements across Europe and Asia.

Indexes were close to flat in both Shanghai and Hong Kong after the Chinese government said retail sales rose less in April than expected. Growth in industrial output slowed to 6.1% year-on-year from 7.7% in March.

In the foreign currency markets, the value of the U.S. dollar fell against everything from the euro to the Australian dollar.

AP Writers Jiang Junzhe and Matt Ott contributed.

Sumitomo Drive Technologies to invest $9.3M to automate Chesapeake warehouse

SUMMARY:

  • is investing $9.3 million to automate its and in , aiming to consolidate space and improve efficiency using advanced storage systems and automated guided vehicles
  • The project will not lead to layoffs; instead, 42 employees will be retrained to operate and support the new automated systems, enhancing their roles and skills
  • The company says the project is expected to boost productivity, improve workplace safety and expand the company’s foreign trade zone from 60,000 to 100,000 square feet
  • The initiative, contracted to Swisslog, is in the design phase and scheduled to go live in early second quarter of 2026

The announced last week that global power transmission manufacturer Sumitomo Drive Technologies will invest $9.3 million to automate a warehouse and distribution center in Chesapeake, as well as retraining 42 employees.

Sumitomo has maxed out its warehouse space at its U.S. headquarters at 4200 Holland Blvd. in Chesapeake. To address this, Sumitomo says that installing and implementing an automated storage and retrieval system will consolidate 27,000 square feet of inventory to 7,000 square feet. The company will also transition from using forklifts to automated guide vehicles to help manage all inventory.

“This $9.3 million investment in our distribution center is more than just — it’s a bold step toward the future,” Sumitomo Drive Technologies Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Tony Barlett said in a statement. “We’re transforming how we operate by embracing advanced automation that will dramatically improve efficiency, speed and service for our customers.”

According to Barlett, the company will not eliminate any jobs. Instead, the company will retrain 42 employees, most of whom will learn to operate the new automated warehouse.

“In fact, one of the most critical aspects of the project is the opportunity it creates to retrain and upskill our workforce,” he said in an email. “The goal of automation is to enhance safety, speed, and efficiency — not to replace people. Our employees remain essential to operations, now supported by smarter tools, expanded roles and growth opportunities.”

According to Barlett, the concept for the project began in the first quarter of 2024, and the contract was awarded in April to Swisslog, a Swiss automation company with U.S. operations in Newport News. Barlett says the project is currently progressing through the design phase. The automation systems are scheduled to go live in the early second quarter of 2026, following testing and employee training.

In addition to being more space efficient, Sumitomo expects the project to increase productivity, with 10 automated guided vehicles supporting material movement. Barlett also says automation creates a safer, more structured work environment. He said the company’s foreign trade zone in Chesapeake will expand from 60,000 to 100,000 square feet to further enhance its distribution operations.

Sumitomo broke ground at its Chesapeake headquarters in April 1988. Today, the company manufactures power transmission and control products for a variety of applications serving customers in food and beverage, parcel handling, automotive and mining. It supplies Cyclo, BuddyBox, Hyponic and Paramax products to customers nationwide. The company is a subsidiary of Tokyo, Japan-based Sumitomo Heavy Industries.

VEDP worked with Chesapeake Economic Development and the to secure the project for Virginia. VEDP will support the company’s employee retraining through the state-funded .

Capital One proposes $425M lawsuit settlement

On Friday, just before closing the $35.3 billion acquisition of Discover Financial Services, came to terms with customers who were suing the bank. If the agreement is approved by a federal judge, will pay $425 million to plaintiffs.

According to a filing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Capital One agreed to pay $300 million in pro rata payments to former 360 Savings account customers who alleged that the bank cheated them out of increased interest rates by not informing them of higher rates applicable to the newer 360 Performance Savings account. Settlement class members who continued to maintain 360 Savings accounts will receive $125 million, the document says.

According to the , plaintiffs said that 360 Savings accounts were capped at 0.3% in interest rates, while 360 Performance Savings rates hit a high of 4.35% in 2024.

The bank also agreed to pay the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees and other expenses out of the settlement, and Capital One will not admit wrongdoing in the settlement.

Last week, New York’s attorney general filed a lawsuit for Capital One depositors in her state.

Multiple parties filed lawsuits against Capital One over its flagship 360 Savings account. In January, during the final days of President Joe Biden’s term, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued Capital One and its holding company, Capital One Financial, alleging that the companies cheated millions of customers out of more than $2 billion in interest payments. However, under the Trump White House, CFPB dropped the lawsuit in February.

Two MLS platforms with Virginia coverage merge data

Two multiple listing services with Virginia coverage have launched a data share agreement.

Central Virginia Regional and announced the agreement Wednesday. Subscribers of each will be able to search current and historical property listing information integrated into both systems.

“This data share marks a significant step forward in our commitment to empowering our subscribers with broader access to critical listing information,” CVR MLS CEO Laura Lafayette said in a statement. “By working together, our MLSs are expanding opportunities for agents and brokers, ultimately delivering greater value to consumers.”

CVR MLS covers the cities of Richmond, Hopewell, and Colonial Heights and the counties of , Dinwiddie, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, Powhatan, Prince George, Charles City, New Kent, King William, Greensville, Surrey and Sussex. It has 6,800 users.

Bright MLS’ service area includes Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. More than 100,000 professionals use the service, and in 2024, the MLS had more than 430,000 listings.

“By completing this integration with CVR MLS, we’re helping agents work smarter and more strategically across markets,” Bright MLS President and CEO Brian Donnellan said in a statement. “It’s about empowering them with the accurate, expansive data they need to succeed — whether they’re guiding a first-time homebuyer in Richmond or managing a referral from Maryland to Central Virginia.”

Despite bankruptcy, Plenty to finish Chesterfield vertical indoor farms

SUMMARY:

  • court approves ‘s restructuring plan
  • vertical strawberry farm opened September 2024
  • Facility set to have four indoor farms
  • Construction on facility’s buildout to resume with creditor and contractor support

Despite filing for bankruptcy in March, Plenty Unlimited will be able to finish construction of its vertical indoor farm facility in .

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher M. Lopez approved on Wednesday a restructuring plan for Plenty and its subsidiaries that will let it complete its facility on 120 acres in Chesterfield’s Meadowville Technology Park. San Francisco-based agricultural tech company Plenty Unlimited in March filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Plenty opened the first farm on its Chesterfield campus at 13500 North Enon Church Road in September 2024. It’s designed to produce more than 4 million pounds of strawberries annually in less than 40,000 square feet by growing the fruit vertically on 30-foot towers. Chesterfield Economic Development Director Garrett Hart confirmed Friday that Plenty is in position to complete the remaining four farms in its existing building. Construction will begin in August.

Anthony R. Grossi, an attorney with Sidley Austin representing Plenty, said Wednesday during a bankruptcy court proceeding: “We stand here ready to confirm a Chapter 11 plan with nearly 100% creditor support, a global from our creditors’ committee, complete consensus from our construction counterparties to complete the buildout of our Richmond facility and committed capital to fund our operations for the foreseeable future.”

Fifty-two days earlier, “when we filed these cases, we had asserted liens against our Richmond facility. … In addition to the asserted liens, work had completely stopped on the buildout of that facility because of unpaid invoices,” Grossi said.

Baltimore-based general contractor The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. had filed a mechanic’s lien against Plenty, its Virginia subsidiary and landowner Realty Income Properties 9 in Chesterfield County Circuit Court in March. Contractor Electrical Controls & Maintenance, based in Mechanicsville, filed a mechanic’s lien against Whiting-Turner, Realty Income Properties 9 and Plenty’s Virginia limited liability company in January. Richmond-based contractor Century Construction Co. also filed a lien against Realty Income Properties 9, Plenty Unlimited and Plenty’s Virginia subsidiary in March.

As part of the plan, “we have our Virginia Mechanic’s Lien class who negotiated for a higher recovery than was originally proposed, and who have also committed, as we’ve said, to complete the buildout of our Richmond facility. Our plan also includes a global settlement and release with respect to our general contractor, Whiting-Turner, and the debtors’ landlord,” Grossi said.

In December 2024, Plenty announced plans to close its Compton, California, leafy greens farm, citing challenges stemming from the high cost of doing business in California, including expensive energy prices. The Chesterfield facility is Plenty’s only operating facility, Grossi said during the proceeding Wednesday.

The Virginia farm exclusively grows strawberries for California-based Driscoll’s, the world’s largest berry distributor. The Chesterfield indoor farm has had berries in market since January, a Plenty spokesperson said in March.

When Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced the project in 2022, Plenty planned to invest $300 million to create the vertical farm campus in Chesterfield, creating 300 jobs. The company said in a news release then that it planned “to deploy several large-scale vertical farms on the campus in the coming years, with a potential annual production capacity exceeding 20 million pounds across multiple crops including strawberries, leafy greens and tomatoes.”

A Plenty spokesperson was out of office on Friday when Virginia Business sought additional information.

Chesapeake Planning Commission recommends against data center

SUMMARY:

  • The Planning Commission voted 6-1 to recommend denying a rezoning request for a 350,000-square-foot in the Great Bridge area after strong opposition from local residents
  • Concerns raised by residents included increased traffic, noise, light pollution, environmental impacts, proximity to homes and schools and opening the door to more large in the area
  • Developer Doug Fuller proposed the 35-foot data center on a 22.6-acre site, requiring a zoning change from agricultural to light industrial, with plans to employ 30-50 people and operate 24/7
  • The commission cited a need for further study on the long-term impacts of the project and a desire to review a legislative report on the growing data center industry in Virginia

The Chesapeake Planning Commission voted 6-1 Wednesday night to recommend denial of a rezoning permit for a 350,000-square-foot data center in the Great Bridge area of Chesapeake. Hundreds of residents have passionately opposed the project.

The matter is expected to go before Chesapeake City Council in June.

Developer Doug Fuller, president of Emerald Lakes Estates, hopes to build the center on a 22.6-acre property on the west side of Centerville Turnpike, south of Etheridge Manor Boulevard. To do so, he needs the land rezoned from agricultural to light industrial.

If the project goes forward, the proposed 35-foot data center will have 30 to 50 employees and be manned 24 hours daily.

Before the meeting, Chair Joshua C. Gerloff said that the commission received a petition signed by almost 450 citizens opposing the data center. Commissioners also received 620 emails against the project and only seven in support and one person undecided.

Complaints included concerns about increased traffic, noise, light pollution, the site being too close to residential homes and schools, disruptions caused by construction, lack of sufficient public input, loss of agricultural land and green space, environmental concerns and fears that the center might cause blackouts, Gerloff said. Many voiced concern that the city’s first data center would open the doors to more data centers and other industrial development.

During a public hearing that lasted more than two hours, about 50 residents shared similar worries.

Chesapeake resident Catherine Gorman, who lives near the proposed site, said her family moved to the area for peace and that she would be “directly” affected by the data center if built.

“This is not just about a zoning decision,” Gorman said. “This is about the health, safety and quality of life of the families who live here. Do you have any independent studies on the environmental and health impacts of these large-scale data centers?”

Her husband, Ben Gorman, shared a similar sentiment, saying that neighboring residents would lose property values and deal with “the eyesore” that is the center. Resident Betty Ainspac urged the commission to delay the vote.

“There is no harm in waiting a little bit of time, gathering more information, because there is no putting this genie back in the bottle,” she said. “Once that data center is built, there is nothing you can do if it exceeds the noise levels. And no one in this area of Chesapeake, when they were shopping for a house, said, ‘Hey, honey, let’s buy the house that’s next to the building that’s the size of two Walmart supercenters.’”

Other residents feared the city’s power wouldn’t be able to sustain the center, although Fuller told the commission that has enough power to run the data center and said the utility had agreed to provide up to 200 megawatts to support the facility.

Several commission members said they wanted more time to study the long-term impact of the data center on the city and also wondered if more compromises could be made with the project to make it more palatable to the community.

Some members said they also wanted to review a Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission report on data centers from last year. The report shows that the unconstrained demand for power in Virginia would double within the next 10 years, with the data center industry being the main driver. The report also said one-third of data centers are located near residential areas, and industry trends make future residential impacts more likely.

“As the industry’s footprint in Northern Virginia grows, the amount of land ideal for data center development is decreasing, and developers are more likely to consider locations closer to residential and other sensitive areas,” the report said. “Additionally, the typical data center building is becoming taller, larger, and more power-intensive, which has the potential to make their industrial characteristics more pronounced and, depending on the design, could generate more noise.”

Ultimately, the commission voted 6-1 to recommend that the council deny rezoning approval, with Commissioner Michael L. Malone being the dissenting vote. Malone had put up a motion to delay the vote for 120 days so that the commission could have more time to get questions about the project answered, but his motion failed to pass.

Commissioners Nathaniel Williams and Jennifer Gilman were not present during the meeting.

Fuller did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

UPDATE: $35B Capital One-Discover merger closes


SUMMARY:

  • ‘s $35.3B purchase of closed May 18
  • was announced February 2024 and received approval despite scrutiny
  • Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren urged the Department of Justice to halt the deal

-based completed its $35.3 billion acquisition of Discover Financial Services on Sunday, finalizing the merger of the credit card giants announced last year.

On April 18, Capital One received approval from the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to purchase Illinois-based Discover. The deal was announced in February 2024, and in December, shareholders at both companies approved it.

“This deal brings together two innovative, mission-driven companies that together are poised to deliver breakthrough products and experiences to consumers, businesses and merchants,” Capital One Founder and CEO Richard D. Fairbank said in a statement.

The all-stock acquisition, Capital One’s largest ever purchase, was under regulatory scrutiny. Two Capital One cardholders filed a federal class action against Discover and Capital One in July 2024, claiming the megadeal would violate antitrust law, but the case was paused in October 2024, pending further action by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

In July 2024, Capital One committed to spend $265 billion over five years to lending, philanthropy and investment if the deal went through.

Earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, wrote to the Department of Justice, calling on its antitrust division to block the transaction.

“Visa and Mastercard, which have enjoyed a duopoly, have a long history of alleged coordination, resulting in higher fees for customers and merchants,” Warren wrote. “Capital One has stated that it will move some, but not all, of its credit card volume to the Discover network, meaning it will be negotiating its interchange fees as a credit card issuer with Visa and Mastercard, while separately setting interchange fees on its own network. That is a recipe for coordination among the three networks.”

Gail Slater, the DOJ’s antitrust czar, determined that she didn’t have enough evidence to challenge the deal in court, according to media reports in April.

According to Capital One, three former Discover board members will now serve on Capital One’s board of directors as it expands from 12 members to 15. The new board members are Thomas G. Maheras, Michael Shepherd and Jennifer L. Wong. Capital One also intends to continue offering Discover-branded , in addition to Capital One cards.

On Monday, Capital One’s stock opened at $195.79 per share and rose 0.58% to $198.11 by 10:30 a.m. Eastern.

A Fortune Global 500 company, Capital One had $353.6 billion in deposits and $486.4 billion in total assets as of Sept. 30, 2024.

Conservatives block Trump’s big tax breaks bill in a stunning setback


SUMMARY:

  • Five hard-right Republicans vote no on House GOP budget bill in
  • Committee vote stalls Speaker Mike Johnson’s attempt to hold full vote next week
  • Republicans voting against bill seek higher spending cuts to , tax breaks

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a massive setback, failed Friday to push their big package of tax breaks and spending cuts through the Budget Committee, as a handful of conservatives joined all Democrats in a stunning vote against it.

The hard-right lawmakers are insisting on steeper spending cuts to Medicaid and the Biden-era green energy tax breaks, among other changes, before they will give their support to President Donald Trump’s “beautiful” bill. They warn the tax cuts alone would pile onto the nation’s $36 trillion debt.

The failed vote, 16-21, stalls, for now, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s push to have the package approved next week. But the holdout lawmakers vowed to stay all weekend to negotiate changes as the Republican president is returning to Washington from the Middle East.

“Something needs to change or you’re not going to get my support,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.

Tallying a whopping 1,116 pages, the Act, named with a nod to Trump, is teetering at a critical moment.

The conservatives are holding out for steeper cuts while GOP lawmakers from high-tax states including New York are demanding a deeper tax deduction, known as SALT, for their constituents. Johnson, with few votes to spare from his slim majority, has insisted Republicans will are on track with the sprawling package that he believes will inject a dose of stability into a wavering economy.

Ahead of Friday’s vote, Trump had implored his party to fall in line.

“Republicans MUST UNITE behind, ‘THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!’” the president posted on social media. “We don’t need ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE!”

Democrats slammed the package as a “big, bad bill,” or as Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., called it, “one big, beautiful betrayal.”

They emphasized that millions of people would lose their health coverage and food stamps assistance if the bill passes while the wealthiest Americans would reap enormous tax cuts. They also said it would increase future deficits.

“That is bad economics. It is unconscionable,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle, the top Democratic lawmaker on the panel.

The Budget panel is one of the final stops before the package is sent to the full House floor for a vote, which is expected as soon as next week. Typically, the job of the Budget Committee is more administrative as it compiles the work of 11 committees that drew up various parts of the big bill.

But Friday’s meeting proved momentous even before the votes were tallied. The conservatives, many from the Freedom Caucus, had been warning they would block the bill, using their leverage to demand further changes. Republicans hold a slim majority in the House and have just a few votes to spare to advance the measure.

Four Republican conservatives initially voted against the package — Roy and Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia. Then one, Rep. of Pennsylvania, switched his vote to no.

“Sadly,” Norman said, “I’m a hard no until we get this ironed out.”

In their push for deeper spending reductions, the conservatives are particularly eyeing Medicaid, the health care program for some 70 million Americans. They want new work requirements for aid recipients to start immediately, rather than on Jan. 1, 2029, as the package proposes.

Smucker said afterward he was confident “we’re going to get this done.”

At the same time, the New Yorkers have been unrelenting in their demand for a much larger than what is proposed in the bill, which could send the overall cost of the package skyrocketing. Those talks are also underway.

As it stands, the bill proposes tripling what’s currently a $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction, increasing it to $30,000 for joint filers with incomes up to $400,000 a year.

Rep. Nick LaLota, one of the New York lawmakers leading the SALT effort, said they have proposed a deduction of $62,000 for single filers and $124,000 for joint filers.

The conservatives and the New Yorkers are at odds, each jockeying for their priorities as Johnson labors to keep the package on track to pass the House by Memorial Day and then onto the Senate.

At its core, the sprawling package extends the existing income tax cuts that were approved during Trump’s first term, in 2017, and adds new ones that the president campaigned on in 2024, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay and some auto loans.

It increases some tax breaks for middle-income earners, including a bolstered standard deduction of $32,000 for joint filers and a temporary $500 boost to the child tax credit, bringing it to $2,500.

It also provides an infusion of $350 billion for Trump’s deportation agenda and to bolster the Pentagon.

To offset more than $5 million in lost revenue, the package proposes rolling back other tax breaks, namely the green energy tax credits approved as part of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Some conservatives want those to end immediately.

The package also seeks to cover the costs by slashing more than $1 trillion from health care and food assistance programs over the course of a decade, in part by imposing work requirements on able-bodied adults.

Certain Medicaid recipients would need to engage in 80 hours a month of work or other community options to receive health care. Older Americans receiving food aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, would also see the program’s current work requirement for able-bodied participants without dependents extended to include those ages 55-64. States would also be required to shoulder a greater share of the program’s cost.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates at least 7.6 million fewer people with health insurance and about 3 million a month fewer SNAP recipients with the changes.

Virginia casinos report nearly $79M in April revenue

SUMMARY:

  • April in Virginia totaled $78.76 million, down $6.43 million from March; Caesars Virginia in led with $32.43 million in adjusted gaming revenue (AGR), followed by Rivers ($25.29M) and Hard Rock ($21.04M)
  • Localities received 6% of each casino’s AGR, amounting to $1.95 million for Danville, $1.52 million for Portsmouth, and $1.26 million for Southwest Virginia via Bristol’s Regional Improvement Commission
  • State taxes from casino revenues totaled nearly $14.18 million
  • Casino development continues in Virginia, with construction underway on a $750M Norfolk casino and a $1.4B casino; also plans to begin building a $65 million hotel this summer

April gaming revenues from Virginia’s three totaled $78.76 million, according to a May 15 report from the . April’s statewide casino gaming revenues were down $6.43 million from March’s $85.19 million.

Last month, Hard Rock Bristol casino reported about $21.04 million in adjusted gaming revenues (wagers minus winnings), of which about $17.44 million came from its 1,437 slots and about $3.6 million came from its 73 table games. (The Virginia Lottery Board approved HR Bristol’s casino license in April 2022, and the Bristol casino’s temporary facility opened in July 2022, making it the first operating casino in Virginia. The permanent Hard Rock Bristol opened in November 2024.)

Rivers Casino Portsmouth, which opened as Virginia’s first permanent casino in January 2023, generated about $18.39 million in April from its 1419 slots and nearly $6.9 million from its 84 table games, for a total AGR of about $25.29 million.

The state’s newest permanent casino, the Caesars Virginia resort in Danville, reported almost $32.43 million in AGR, with about $23.74 million coming from its 1,483 slots and roughly $8.68 million coming from the casino’s 100 table games. The $800 million Caesars Virginia opened in December 2024, replacing a temporary casino that opened in May 2023.

Virginia law assesses a graduated tax on a casino’s adjusted gaming revenue. For the month of April, taxes from casino AGRs totaled nearly $14.18 million.

Under Virginia law, 6% of a casino operator’s AGR goes to its host locality until the operator passes $200 million in AGR for the year, at which point the host locality’s tax rate rises to 7%. If an operator passes $400 million in AGR in the calendar year, that rises to 8%.

For April, Portsmouth received 6% of the Rivers Casino Portsmouth’s AGR, getting about $1.52 million. Danville received 6% of the Caesars Virginia casino’s adjusted gaming revenue, amounting to roughly $1.95 million. For the Bristol casino, 6% of its adjusted gaming revenue — about $1.26 million last month — goes to the Regional Improvement Commission, which the General Assembly established to distribute Bristol casino tax funds throughout Southwest Virginia.

The Problem Treatment and Support Fund receives 0.8% of total taxes — about $113,414 last month. The Family and Children’s Trust Fund, which funds family violence prevention and treatment programs, receives 0.2% of the monthly total, which was approximately $28,354 in April.

Two more casinos are on the horizon in Virginia.

Construction began on the long-awaited $750 million Norfolk casino in February. The Pamunkey Indian Tribe remains a partner, but Boyd Gaming replaced Tennessee investor Jon Yarbrough in 2024. A temporary casino is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Developers named Ron Bailey as vice president and general manager for the forthcoming casino earlier this month.

In November 2024, more than 80% of Petersburg voters said yes to the city’s casino referendum. Baltimore-based The Cordish Cos. and Virginia Beach developer Bruce Smith Enterprise broke ground on the much-anticipated $1.4 billion casino in March.

Earlier this month, Rivers Casino and Chicago-based Rush Street Gaming announced they are planning to break ground on a $65 million hotel in Portsmouth this summer, more than two years after the casino first opened.

Housing supply, affordability gap remain top of mind for potential homebuyers

Households earning $75,000 a year can only afford 21.2% of all home listings, according to the  and Realtor.com.

In the 2025 Affordability & Supply report released Thursday, NAR officials said that America’s  persists with less than one-fourth of all For Sale home listings economically feasible for potential buyers making $75,000 annually. The report analyzes the shortage of affordable homes across different income levels in the current U.S. and provides a real-time, income-specific snapshot of housing affordability, examining what home buyers at various income levels can afford based on standard lending criteria, officials said.

While noticeably decreased from pre-pandemic levels, For Sale  increased almost 20% nationwide in March. The gain is good news, said NAR representatives.

“The housing market is at a turning point,” said Nadia Evangelou, NAR senior economist and director of research. “More homes are hitting the market, and it’s encouraging to see the greatest housing-supply gains among middle-income home buyers.”

The NAR report states that while households earning $75,000 a year experienced a slight improvement in accessibility to home listings between March 2025 (21.2%) and March 2024 (20.8%), the largest gain of any income group, they have less than half of the access to affordable homes than they had before the pandemic, when nearly 49% of listings were accessible.

NAR officials state that in a balanced housing market — where listings are aligned with what households at various income levels can afford — these home buyers would need access to 48.1% of listings. To reach that threshold, the market needs nearly 416,000 more listings priced at or below $255,000.

“Shoppers see more homes for sale today than one year ago, and encouragingly, many of these homes have been added at moderate income price points,” said Danielle Hale, Realtor.com chief economist. “But as this report shows, we still don’t have an abundance of homes that are affordable to low- and moderate-income households, and the progress that we’ve seen is not happening everywhere. It’s been concentrated in the Midwest and the South.”

“For many first-time home buyers, navigating the current housing market still feels like window shopping,” added Evangelou. “Listing prices don’t match first-time home buyers’ budgets. If the promising trend of building smaller homes continues, that could be a meaningful step toward easing the housing affordability gap for more buyers.”