The exchange operator CME Group Inc. said it would permanently close most of its open-outcry trading pits in Chicago, ending one of the world’s last vestiges of old-fashioned floor trading. Floor trading for agricultural commodities has existed in Chicago since the mid-19th century.
U.S. hotel revenue per available room for the week was 70% of what it was during the same week in 2019. RevPAR has been at or above 67% of 2019 levels for the past four weeks.
Stockholdings among U.S. households increased to 41% of their total financial assets in April, the highest level on record dating back to 1952.
After 2020 saw US-domiciled ETFs gain $476 billion in net flows (inflows less outflows)—which broke the annual record of $470 billion set in 2017—they accumulated nearly $248 billion in Q1 this year.
The consumer confidence index increased to 121.7 in April from a revised 109.0 in March. Recent improvements led the index to a more than one-year high, with the indicator approaching the pre-pandemic level of 132.6 in February 2020.
Foot traffic at a representative sample of 50 malls in March was up 86% from the same month last year. While that foot traffic was 24% lower than in March 2019, mall owners are hopeful that their business has turned a corner.
Median asking rent rose 1.1% on an annual basis in March to $1,463 a month across the country’s 50 largest markets. That marked the first month where the pace of rent growth had increased since last summer.
Pre-pandemic, the average hotel logged a little over two hours of labor for every occupied room, but that’s dropped to 1.5 hours over the course of the pandemic in part because housekeepers aren’t going into rooms each day and reduced food and beverage service.
