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Savills announces new D.C.-region leaders

Amy Kaufman Brendler and Jon Glass have been appointed executive vice presidents and co-leads of commercial brokerage ‘ Washington, , region, which includes the office, the company announced Monday.

Tom Fulcher, who was named mid-Atlantic region lead for Savills in 2021, will be stepping back from his regional role, according to the news release. Fulcher, who joined Savills in 1986, will remain actively involved in brokerage.

Brendler launched her career at Savills, when the firm operated as Studley. She went on to work for 16 years as managing director at the Washington, D.C., office of real estate firm Tishman Speyer, where she led leasing strategy across 4 million square feet. She also served as a at CWCapital, a Washington, D.C., real estate and investment management company.

Glass, an economics graduate of Tufts University, joined Savills in 2007 as a financial analyst. He also worked as a senior associate in , for Cresa, a real estate advisory firm with headquarters in Chicago, for four years, according to his LinkedIn profile.

“Savills DC has always been one of the firm’s most important and high-performing markets,” David Lipson, CEO of Savills North America, stated in the news release. “We’ve built our success here by nurturing top talent and promoting from within — something that was true of my journey years ago. I’m looking forward to Amy and Jon stepping into these roles and continuing our tradition of excellence, collaboration, and innovation.”

Savills North America is the U.S. subsidiary of Savills, a global commercial real estate brokerage headquartered in London. Savills has more than 40 offices and over 1,000 employees across North America.

Is slight rise in Virginia unemployment ‘calm before storm?’

Virginia’s numbers are on a slight rise, according to data from the state’s Department of Workforce Development and Advancement, also known as .

The state agency reports that Virginia’s seasonally adjusted rate in March rose a tenth of a percentage point to 3.2 % compared to 3.1% in February and 2.8% from a year ago. Household survey data collected in March shows the labor force decreased by 9,752 to 4,586,386 as the number of unemployed residents increased by 5,029 to 145,441.

The largest job loss occurred in professional and business services, which dropped 4,400 from February to 805,300. jobs decreased by 4,100 to 192,000, although state government employment increased by 1,000 to 161,800 and local government employment increased by 700 to 408,900 over the month. Tens of thousands of federal jobs losses have been announced under the current Trump Administration, which has made moves to slash federal spending and federal jobs.

Information and miscellaneous service jobs both declined by 300, with information jobs dropping to 70,200 and miscellaneous services jobs dipping to 204,500. Mining and logging remained unchanged.

“As one might expect, we’re now starting to see the impacts of federal in unemployment data,” said economist Bob McNab, director of ‘s , said of the newly released data.

McNab also speculated that federal contracts that have either been reduced or terminated outright would land in the “professional and business services” category in terms of providing support to government activities in . He said these employment drops are what has been expected to show up in the data, considering all of the recent news about the federal government workforce reductions.

“We would expect, I think it’s a reasonable expectation, that these losses will continue in coming months, if not accelerate, given what we’ve seen in terms of proposals to reduce the the Health and Human Services budget significantly, to reduce the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s operations significantly,” McNab said. “And so we would expect as those agency cuts filter through, we would expect unemployment from federal government employees to increase, and then among the contractors supporting those employees to increase as well.”

Statewide, the number of employed residents decreased 14,781 to 4,440,945.

Virginia’s nonagricultural employment increased by 5,900 to 4,271,400. This is a 48,300 increase since March 2024. March also saw private sector employment increase by 8,300 to 3,508,700. The largest job gains in March from February were in construction (up 7,200 to 226,100), education and health services (up 2,200 to 632,400) and trade, transportation and utilities (up 1,600 to 680,400.)

In an April 18 news release, emphasized the improvements in nonfarm payroll.

“Nonfarm payrolls added nearly 6,000 jobs,” said Youngkin in a statement. “This job growth reflects businesses hiring as Virginians continue to find opportunities. Virginia has jobs, and we’re committed to strengthening the business environment so that everyone can find a path to success right here in the commonwealth.”

While McNab saw the increase in construction jobs as “welcome and a sign of vitality for the Virginia ,” he cautioned equating these increases to the loss of federal jobs.

“I think there’s a note of concern in that we’re gaining jobs that typically pay less than jobs we’re losing on average,” McNab said.

The Virginia labor force participation rate — the proportion of the civilian population ages 16 and older that is employed or actively looking for work — declined 0.2% in March to 65.5.%

Secretary of Labor Bryan Slater said in the governor’s release that “the decline in labor force participation and employment suggests some Virginians may be sitting on the sidelines. Our focus remains on re-engaging jobseekers and connecting them to the training and resources they need to thrive in today’s job market.”

While much of the report was positive, McNab cautioned it was a “calm before the storm.”

“Because the impact of federal government layoffs, contract reductions and the impact of tariffs have yet to materialize,” McNab said. “So the soft data is telling us these impacts are coming. We believe the impacts are coming. We’re starting to get the first signs of those impacts, but they have yet to fully come into view.”

Hampton University gets new CFO

Hampton University has tapped Robert Pompey as its new chief financial officer and for business and , University President Darrell K. Williams announced April 16.

As , Pompey will oversee the ‘s financial operations, including budgeting, investments, financial reporting and long-term fiscal strategy. He will also provide oversight over human resources, facilities and public safety.

Before Hampton, Pompey was vice chancellor for business and finance at North Carolina A&T State University for nearly two decades. According to a news release, while Pompey was there, he led initiatives that strengthened the university’s financial position, improved operational efficiencies and supported major capital projects.

“Robert’s track record of delivering transformative change to organizations by leveraging to drive automation, lowering costs, and improving infrastructure will be invaluable as we continue to strengthen our commitment to a safe, healthy and thriving campus — one that fosters both living and learning at the highest level,” said Williams in a statement. “His will be instrumental in financing our future, supporting our dedicated faculty and staff, and enhancing the facilities that make the best environment for student success.”

Pompey holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from North Carolina A&T State University and an MBA from Wake Forest University.

“I’m honored to join Hampton University, an institution with a storied legacy of academic excellence and leadership,” said Pompey in a statement. “I look forward to working alongside President Williams, the board of trustees, and the university community to ensure Hampton’s financial strength and continued success.”

In February, Hampton University announced it has obtained Research 2 designation from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of — making it one of the few to do so. With the new designation, Hampton joins 139 institutions nationwide that meet the requirements of spending at least $5 million in annual research and awarding 20 or more research doctorates yearly.

Founded in 1868, the university today contributes about $530 million annually to the regional and Virginia economies. In the fall of 2024, it had enrolled 3,727 undergraduate students and 498 graduate students.

Google faces off with US government in attempt to break up company in search monopoly case

Google confronts an existential threat Monday as the U.S. government tries to break up the company as punishment for turning its revolutionary search engine into a ruthless .

The drama will unfold in a Washington courtroom during the next three weeks during hearings that will determine how the company should be penalized for operating an illegal monopoly in search. In its opening arguments, federal enforcers also urged the court to impose forward-looking remedies to prevent from using the same strategies to build a monopoly around artificial intelligence.

“This is a moment in time, we’re at an inflection point, will we abandon the search market and surrender them to control of the monopolists or will we let competition prevail and give choice to future generations,” said attorney David Dahlquist.

The U.S. Department of Justice is asking a federal judge to order a radical shake-up that would ban Google from striking the multibillion dollar deals with Apple and other companies that shield its search engine from competition, share its repository of valuable user data with rivals and force a of its popular Chrome browser.

The moment of reckoning comes four-and-half-years after the Justice Department filed a landmark lawsuit alleging Google’s search engine had been abusing its power as the internet’s main gateway to stifle competition and innovation for more than a decade.

“This is a time for the court to tell Google, and all the other monopolists who are out there listening, and they are listening, that there are consequences when you break anti-trust laws,” Dahlquist said.

After the case finally went to trial in 2023, a federal judge last year ruled Google had been making anti-competitive deals to lock in its search engine as the go-to place for digital information on the iPhone, personal computers and other widely used devices, including those running on its own Android software.

That landmark ruling by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sets up a high-stakes drama that will determine the penalties for Google’s misconduct in a search market that it has defined since Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded the company in a Silicon Valley garage in 1998.

Since that austere start, Google has expanded far beyond search to become a powerhouse in email, digital mapping, online video, web browsing, smartphone software and data centers.

Seizing upon its victory in the search case, the Justice Department is now setting out to prove that radical steps must be taken to rein in Google and its corporate parent, Alphabet Inc.

“Google’s illegal conduct has created an economic goliath, one that wreaks havoc over the marketplace to ensure that — no matter what occurs — Google always wins,” the Justice Department argued in documents outlining its proposed penalties. “The American thus are forced to accept the unbridled demands and shifting, ideological preferences of an economic leviathan in return for a search engine the public may enjoy.”

Although the proposed penalties were originally made under President Joe Biden’s term, they are still being embraced by the Justice Department under , whose first administration filed the case against Google. Since the change in administrations, the Justice Department has also attempted to cast Google’s immense power as a threat to freedom, too.

“The American dream is about higher values than just cheap goods and ‘free’ online services,” the Justice Department wrote in a March 7 filing with Mehta. “These values include freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom to innovate, and freedom to compete in a market undistorted by the controlling hand of a monopolist.”

Google is arguing the government’s proposed changes are unwarranted under a ruling that its search engine popularity among consumers is one of the main reasons it has become so dominant.

The “unprecedented array of proposed remedies would harm consumers and innovation, as well as future competition in search and search ads in addition to numerous other adjacent markets,” Google lawyers said in a filing leading up to hearings. “They bear little or no relationship to the conduct found anticompetitive, and are contrary to the .”

Google also is sounding alarms about the proposed requirements to share online search data with rivals and the proposed sale of Chrome posing privacy and security risks. “The breadth and depth of the proposed remedies risks doing significant damage to a complex ecosystem. Some of the proposed remedies would imperil browser developers and jeopardize the digital security of millions of consumers.”

The showdown over Google’s fate marks the climax of the biggest antitrust case in the U.S. since the Justice Department sued Microsoft in the late 1990s for leveraging its Windows software for personal computers to crush potential rivals.

The Microsoft battle culminated in a federal judge declaring the company an illegal monopoly and ordering a partial breakup — a remedy that was eventually overturned by an appeals court.

Google intends to file an appeal of Mehta’s ruling from last year that branded its search engine as an illegal monopoly but can’t do so until the remedy hearings are completed. After closing arguments are presented in late May, Mehta intends to make his decision on the remedies before Labor Day.

The search case marked the first in a succession of antitrust cases that have been brought against a litany of tech giants that include Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms, which is currently fighting allegations of running an illegal monopoly in social media in another Washington D.C. trial. Other antitrust cases have been brought against both Apple and Amazon, too.

The Justice Department also targeted Google’s digital advertising network in a separate antitrust case that resulted last week in another federal judge’s decision that found the company was abusing its power in that market, too. That ruling means Google will be heading into another remedy hearing that could once again raise the specter of a breakup later this year or early next year.

Spotsylvania industrial portfolio sells for $38M

An entity sharing an address with the Pinkard Group, a Washington, , regional investment and development company, has purchased four light and warehouse buildings in County for $38 million, according to .

Located in Four Mile Fork Industrial Park, the county’s largest light industrial park, the Longwood Industrial sits along on 35.67 acres along Industrial Drive and Houser Drive and includes 221,000 square feet of space. The properties are 100% leased to tenants including Flowers Bakery, Midsouth Building Supply, F.H.Furr, Capital Electric, Lennox and Blossman Gas.

An entity named Longwood Owner purchased the portfolio from Longwood Holdings as an investment, according to Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer. Virgil G. Nelson of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer handled negotiations on behalf of the seller.

The Dow sinks nearly 1,000 points

NEW YORK (AP) — weakened Monday as investors worldwide get more skeptical about U.S. investments because of President Donald Trump’s trade war and his criticism of the Federal Reserve, which are shaking the traditional order.

The S&P 500 sank 2.4% in another wipeout. That yanked the index that’s at the center of many 401(k) accounts 16% below its record set two months ago.

The Jones Average dropped 971 points, or 2.5%, while losses for Tesla and Nvidia helped drag the Nasdaq composite down 2.6%.

Perhaps more worryingly, U.S. government bonds and the value of the U.S. dollar also sank as prices retreated across U.S. markets. It’s an unusual move because Treasurys and the dollar have historically strengthened during episodes of nervousness. This time around, though, it’s policies directly from Washington that are causing the fear and potentially weakening their reputations as some of the world’s safest investments.

Trump continued his tough talk on global as economists and investors continue to say his stiff proposed could cause a recession if they’re not rolled back. U.S. talks last week with Japan failed to reach a quick deal that could lower tariffs and protect the , and they’re seen as a “test case,” according to Thierry Wizman, a strategist at Macquarie.

“The golden rule of negotiating and success: He who has the gold makes the rules,” Trump said in all capitalized letters on his Truth Social Network. He also said that “the businessmen who criticize tariffs are bad at business, but really bad at politics,” likewise in all caps.

Trump has recently focused more on , the world’s second-largest economy, which has also been keeping up its rhetoric. China on Monday warned other countries against making trade deals with the United States “at the expense of China’s interest” as Japan, South Korea and others try to negotiate agreements.

“If this happens, China will never accept it and will resolutely take countermeasures in a reciprocal manner,” China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement.

Also hanging over the market are worries about Trump’s anger at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Trump last week criticized Powell again for not cutting interest rates sooner to give the economy more juice.

The Fed has been resistant to lowering rates too quickly because it does not want to allow inflation to reaccelerate after slowing nearly all the way down to its 2% goal from more than 9% three years ago.

Trump talked Monday about a slowdown for the U.S. economy that could be coming unless “Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW.”

A move by Trump to fire Powell would likely send a bolt of fear through financial markets. While Wall Street loves lower rates, largely because they boost , the bigger worry would be that a less independent Fed would be less effective at keeping inflation under control. Such a move could further weaken, if not kill, the United States’ reputation as the world’s safest place to keep cash.

All the uncertainty striking pillars at the center of financial markets means some investors say they’re having to rethink the fundamentals of how to invest.

“We can no longer extrapolate from past trends or rely on long-term assumptions to anchor portfolios,” strategists at BlackRock Investment Institute said in a report. “The distinction between tactical and strategic asset allocation is blurred. Instead, we need to constantly reassess the long-term trajectory and be dynamic with asset allocation as we learn more about the future state of the global system.”

That in turn could push investors outside the United States to keep more of their money in their home markets, according to the strategists led by Jean Boivin.

On Wall Street, Big stocks helped lead indexes lower ahead of their latest earnings reports due later this week.

Tesla sank 5.7%. The electric vehicle maker’s stock has more than halved from its record set in December on criticism that the stock price had gone too high and that CEO Elon Musk’s role in leading the U.S. government’s efforts to cut spending is damaging the brand.

Nvidia fell 4.5% for a third straight drop after disclosing that U.S. export limits on chips to China could hurt its first-quarter results by $5.5 billion.

They led another wipeout on Wall Street, and 92% of the stocks within the S&P 500 fell.

Among the few gainers were Discover Financial Services and Capital One Financial, which climbed after the U.S. government approved their proposed merger. Discover rose 3.6%, while Capital One added 1.5%.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 124.50 points to 5,158.20. The dropped 971.82 to 38,170.41, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 415.55 to 15,870.90.

Gold also climbed to burnish its reputation as a safe-haven investment, unlike some others.

In the bond market, shorter-term Treasury yields fell as investors expect the Fed to cut its main overnight interest rate later this year to support the economy.

But longer-term yields rose with doubts about the United States’ standing in the global economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.40%, up from 4.34% at the end of last week and from just about 4% earlier this month. That’s a substantial move for the bond market.

The U.S. dollar’s value, meanwhile, fell against the euro, Japanese yen, the Swiss franc and other currencies.

Trump official urges criminal probe of NY AG over Virginia home purchase

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — In the summer of 2023, New York Letitia James helped her niece buy a modest house in , Virginia, by becoming a co-borrower on the loan.

A top housing official in the Trump administration has now seized on a document in that transaction to argue that James should be prosecuted for bank fraud, asking the U.S. Justice Department in a letter to open a investigation into the Democrat.

The request for an investigation comes as the administration has pursued a campaign of retribution against President Donald Trump’s longtime foes in the world. James won a $454 million judgment against Trump last year in a lawsuit claiming he had lied about the value of his assets on financial statements given to banks.

James called the allegations against her “baseless.”

“It is nothing more than a headline, nothing more than retaliation against all the actions I have taken successfully against Donald Trump,” she said Wednesday in an interview on the New York cable news station NY1.

In an April 14 letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi asking for an investigation, U.S. Federal Housing Agency Director William Pulte cited “media reports” claiming James had falsely listed a home in Virginia as her principal residence, which he hypothesized was an effort to avoid the higher interest rates often pay for mortgages on second homes.

As evidence, Pulte cited a legal form James signed on Aug. 17, 2023, in which she gave her niece, Shamice Thompson-Hairston, the authority to sign documents on her behalf in connection with the two weeks later. Those forms are required when a person involved in buying a house can’t be present for the closing.

That form included a line that says, “I hereby declare that I intend to occupy this as my principal residence.”

“At the time of the 2023 Norfolk, VA property purchase and mortgage, Ms. James was the siting Attorney General of New York and is required by to have her primary residence in the state of New York — even though her mortgage applications list her intent to have the Norfolk, VA property as her primary home,” Pulte wrote in the letter asking for an investigation.

James’ office, however, shared a partial copy of a loan application in which she appeared to disclose that she didn’t intend to live in Virginia.

On the application, James was asked the question, “Will you occupy the property as your primary residence?” She checked the box that said “no.”

“Donald Trump’s weaponization of the federal government continues to careen out of control – and now they are using cherry-picked information to attack the Attorney General,” her office said in a statement.

On another part of the loan application, James indicated she was applying for joint credit with Thompson-Hairston, who intended to use the home as her primary residence. That kind of arrangement isn’t uncommon between family members, such as when parents help their children buy a starter home.

Real estate lawyers who spoke to The Associated Press said it was difficult to tell, based on the limited number of documents available publicly, whether anything improper had taken place or whether James had tried to deceive anyone about where she intended to live. One Virginia lawyer told the AP he had never seen a power-of-attorney form before that had a reference to a primary residence.

Bondi said Wednesday in an interview on Fox News that her office would review Pulte’s letter.

Brooklyn town house subject of scrutiny

Pulte also accused James of lying about the number of apartments in a New York City town house she has owned since 2001.

Pulte’s letter cited a certificate of occupancy issued to a previous owner authorizing up to five living units in the Brooklyn building, where James lives and has rented apartments to some tenants. Multiple other city records indicate that the town house has four units.

James has indicated in building permit applications and in mortgage documents for years that the building has four units. Past news articles about the building have also referred to it as having four units.

Pulte speculated that James had misrepresented the number of units in order to qualify for federally backed mortgages offering interest rates unavailable to the owners of buildings with more than four units.

Experts in New York real estate said discrepancies about the number of units in a building aren’t uncommon when property changes hands and typically only draw scrutiny from regulators when the change allows an owner to reap some improper advantage, such as skirting rent regulations.

“For regulatory and income-generating purposes, going from five units to four units doesn’t really help her,” said Andrew Scherer, a professor at New York Law School focused on housing law. “It seems highly unlikely that this kind of a difference would in and of itself be legally consequential.”

James’ office said the building has four units and noted that the certificate of occupancy listing it as having five predated her ownership.

City inspection finds no violation

Beginning in July 2023, shortly before the start of Trump’s civil fraud trial, the city’s Department of Buildings began receiving anonymous complaints claiming James had illegally misclassified the property.

“Why is she NOT being prosecuted for fraud and filling false documents when other people have been persecuted for far less crimes,” one complaint read.

Inspectors with the city’s Department of Buildings have found no violations. During their most recent visit on Wednesday, an inspection report determined the complaint was “unsubstantiated based on department records.”

Trump’s lawyers have appealed the judgment that James won against him. The president says he didn’t mislead anyone about the value of his properties.

US stocks sink with the US dollar’s value as investors retreat further from the United States

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

(AP) — U.S. stocks are tumbling Monday as investors worldwide get more skeptical about U.S. investments because of President Donald Trump’s  and his criticism of the Federal Reserve, which are shaking the traditional order.

The S&P 500 sank 3.4% in another wipeout. That yanked the index that’s at the center of many 401(k) accounts nearly 17% below its record set two months ago.

The Dow Jones Average was down 1,273 points, or 3.3%, with an hour remaining in trading. Tesla and other Big stocks dropped to some of the sharpest losses, which dragged the Nasdaq composite down a market-leading 3.6%.

Perhaps more worryingly, U.S. government bonds and the value of the U.S. dollar also sank as a retreat continued from U.S. markets. It’s an unusual move because they’ve historically strengthened during past episodes of nervousness. This time around, though, it’s policies directly from Washington that are causing the fear and potentially weakening their reputations as some of the world’s safest investments.

Trump continued his tough talk on global , even as economists and investors continue to say his stiff proposed could cause a recession if they’re not rolled back. U.S. talks last week with Japan have so far failed to reach a deal that could lower tariffs and protect the , and they’re seen as a “test case,” according to Thierry Wizman, a strategist at Macquarie.

“The golden rule of negotiating and success: He who has the gold makes the rules,” Trump said in all capitalized letters on his Truth Social Network. He also said that “the businessmen who criticize tariffs are bad at business, but really bad at politics,” likewise in all caps.

Trump has recently focused more on , the world’s second-largest economy, which has been keeping up with the rhetoric itself. China on Monday warned other countries against making trade deals with the United States “at the expense of China’s interest” as Japan, South Korea and others try to negotiate agreements.

“If this happens, China will never accept it and will resolutely take countermeasures in a reciprocal manner,” China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement.

Also hanging over the market are worries about Trump’s anger at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Trump last week criticized Powell again for not cutting interest rates sooner to give the economy more juice.

The Fed has been resistant to lowering rates too quickly because it does not want to allow inflation to reaccelerate after slowing nearly all the way down to its 2% goal from more than 9% three years ago.

Trump talked again on Monday about a slowdown for the U.S. economy that could be coming unless “Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW.”

A move by Trump to fire Powell would likely send a tremendous bolt of fear through financial markets. While loves lower interest rates, in large part because they boost , the bigger worry would be that a less independent Fed would be less effective at keeping inflation under control in the long run. Such a move could further weaken, if not kill, the United States’ reputation as the world’s safest place to keep cash.

All the uncertainty striking pillars at the center of global financial markets means some investors say they’re having to rethink the fundamentals of how to invest.

“We can no longer extrapolate from past trends or rely on long-term assumptions to anchor portfolios,” strategists at BlackRock Investment Institute said in a report. “The distinction between tactical and strategic asset allocation is blurred. Instead, we need to constantly reassess the long-term trajectory and be dynamic with asset allocation as we learn more about the future state of the global system.”

That in turn could push investors outside the United States to keep more of their money in their home markets, according to the strategists led by Jean Boivin.

On Wall Street, several Big Tech stocks helped lead indexes lower ahead of their latest earnings reports due later this week.

Tesla sank 7.1%, for example. The electric vehicle’s stock came into Monday roughly 50% below its record set in December on criticism that its stock price had gone too high and that its brand has become too entwined with Elon Musk, who’s leading the U.S. government’s efforts to cut spending.

Nvidia fell 5.9% and was on track for a third straight drop after disclosing that new U.S. export limits on chips to China could hurt its first-quarter results by $5.5 billion. It was the single heaviest weight on the S&P 500. A 3.2% drop for Apple, 3.1% fall for Microsoft and 4.1% slide for Amazon were close behind.

It was another wipeout on Wall Street, and 97% of the stocks within the S&P 500 were falling.

Among the few gainers was Discover Financial Services, which climbed after the U.S. government approved its proposed merger with Capital One Financial.

Discover rose 3.1%, while Capital One added 1%.

Gold also climbed to burnish its reputation as a safe-haven investment, unlike some others.

In the bond market, shorter-term Treasury yields fell as investors keep alive hopes that the Fed may cut its main overnight interest rate later this year in order to support the economy.

But longer-term yields rose with doubts about the United States’ standing in the global economy because of Trump’s moves. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.41%, up from 4.34% at the end of last week and from just about 4% earlier this month. That’s a substantial move for the bond market.

The U.S. dollar’s value, meanwhile, fell against the euro, Japanese yen, the Swiss franc and other currencies.

In stock markets abroad, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.3%. Indexes fared better in Seoul, where stocks rose 0.2%, and in Shanghai, which saw a 0.4% gain.

___

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

 

Notes: Eds: UPDATES: with close of US trading.

Average US rate on a 30-year mortgage climbs to 6.83%, highest level since late February

The average rate on a 30-year in the U.S. climbed to its highest level in eight weeks, a setback for home shoppers in the midst of the spring homebuying season.

The rate rose to 6.83% from 6.62% last week, mortgage buyer said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 7.1%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also rose. The average rate increased to 6.03% from 5.82% last week. It’s still down from 6.39% a year ago, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including global demand for U.S. Treasurys, the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions and bond market investors’ expectations for future .

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage loosely follows moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The yield, which had mostly fallen this year after climbing to around 4.8% in mid-January, spiked last week to 4.5% amid a sell-off in government bonds triggered by investor anxiety over the potential fallout from the Trump administration’s escalating tariff war.

The 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.32% in midday trading Thursday.

When mortgage rates rise, they reduce homebuyers’ purchasing power.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage had mostly trended lower since reaching just over 7% in mid-January. This week’s increase is the first after three straight declines and brings the average rate to its highest level since Feb. 20, when it was 6.85%.

The increase in mortgage rates may put off some would-be homebuyers during what’s traditionally the busiest period of the year for home sales. Last week, mortgage applications fell 8.5% from a week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

At the same time, the share of applications for adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs, climbed to its highest level in 17 months. ARMs lower a borrower’s mortgage payment by reducing the interest rate on a mortgage for a preset number of years before it adjusts to a higher rate.

Earlier this year, forecasts by housing economists generally called for the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain around 6.5% this year.

“Looking forward, competing economic forces are pulling mortgage rates in opposite directions, making it increasingly difficult to predict where they’ll land,” said Jiayi Xu, an at Realtor.com. “For buyers, the smartest move is to stress-test their budgets across a range of possible rate scenarios to stay prepared—no matter which way the winds shift.

The U.S. has been in a sales slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years.

Easing mortgage rates and more homes on the market nationally helped drive sales higher in February from the previous month though they were down year-over-year.

Home shoppers who can afford to buy at current mortgage rates may benefit from more buyer-friendly trends this spring homebuying season, including a sharp increase in home listings and lower asking prices in some metro areas.

This 420, Virginians can possess marijuana but still can’t buy it

Rolling into a 420 weekend seems like a good time to do an overview of Virginia’s current landscape.

In 2021, Virginia became the first state in the South to legalize marijuana. If you’re 21 years old or older, you can lawfully possess up to one ounce of weed and grow up to four marijuana plants.

That said, the hasn’t managed to get a framework for commercial sales of marijuana for recreational use passed into , so Virginians can’t legally buy marijuana in retail stores.

As he did in 2024, on March 24 vetoed legislation that would have allowed retail marijuana sales in the state, stating it would endanger “Virginians’ health and safety.”

A fiscal impact statement on the bill reported that the sales could generate total state revenues of $7.3 million in fiscal year 2026, the year the sales were slated to begin if the bill had been enacted into law.

While Youngkin is quick to tout Virginia’s business friendly reputation, Eric Postow, Fairfax-based managing partner for Holon Law Partners, wasn’t surprised to learn Youngkin again vetoed a commercial retail sales bill.

“He does not like marijuana,” said Postow, who specializes in law. “He does not want to support the growth of the marijuana industry. He’s been consistent on that.”

Mike Tabor, vice president of operations at Greenwood-based Jackpot 777 Farms, which sells hemp additives that go into consumer packaged goods, called Youngkin’s veto shortsighted.

“Our legislators have put together a very solid plan and his inaction on that is just leading to bigger problems than marijuana in the hands of the consumer,” he said. “We have a huge problem around the state with unregulated sellers selling questionable or gray market product with zero oversight, quality control, proper testing — you name it.”

Tanner Johnson, CEO of Elkton’s Pure Virginia, a family-run CBD and hemp products business, and a founding member of the Virginia Cannabis Association, remains optimistic that Virginia will eventually legalize commercial marijuana sales.

“We trust that next year Virginia will implement a fair and effective recreational licensing framework,” he wrote in a message.

Medical marijuana use is in the commonwealth with the first dispensary opening in 2020. Since 2024, the medical program has been overseen by the Virginia , which took over that role from the Virginia Board of Pharmacy.

While medical marijuana has been legal for a while, Virginia had not established a track-and-trace system, which allows states to determine how much marijuana is being commercially grown and sold within a state.

In October, the CCA announced it had chosen Metrc, a Florida provider of cannabis regulatory systems, to run Virginia’s seed-to- tracking program. The system is expected to launch this summer and will track medical marijuana through its growth cycle to sale.

Jeremy Preiss, who oversaw that selection as the CCA’s acting head and chief officer of regulatory, policy and external affairs, stepped down from the position in March. Jamie Patten took over as the acting head and chief administrative officer. Patten joined the CCA in 2022 and has held roles in several Virginia agencies.

“Limited cannabis use is legal for adults in Virginia, but it’s important to follow the law and make responsible choices,” Patten stated in a news release issued Friday in advance of the weekend’s 420 celebrations. “By using cannabis safely, legally, and never driving under the influence, we can all help keep our communities safe.”