Royal Caribbean’s net debt rose more than 42% to $16.45 billion in 2020 from the prior year. The cruise operator, which ended 2020 with about $4.4 billion in cash, expects to burn through between $250 million and $290 million a month during the cruise hiatus.

It is estmated that 17% of renters are now behind on their payments—three times the typical rate. Unpaid rent exceeds $52 billion with the average delinquent household owing $5,586.

Mortgage lenders originated a record $3.69 trillion worth of mortgages last year. With the 30-year mortgage rate near 2.97%, between 15.2 million and 16.7 million Americans could lower their monthly mortgage payments through a refinancing.

The CDC order covers tenants who can’t pay their full rent due to a substantial loss of household income, loss of compensable hours of work, a layoff or extraordinary medical expenses. While the intent of the CDC moratorium was to prevent the spread of Covid, there is no requirement in the order that the income loss be due to Covid.

The Fed will continue to support the economy with near-zero interest rates and large-scale asset purchases until “substantial further progress has been made,” a standard that Mr. Powell said “is likely to take some time” to achieve.

The city of San Diego paid $106 million in late 2020 for two hotels to house the homeless — $67 million for the 192-key Residence Inn Mission Valley and $39.5 million for the 144-key Kearny Mesa Residence Inn.

Since February 2020, the leisure-and-hospitality sector has shed nearly four million jobs, roughly a quarter of its workforce. As of January 2021, 15.9% of the industry’s workers remained unemployed; more than any other industry.

A study of more than 5,000 hotels across the U.S. has found that 64% of the country’s hotel workers currently earn less than the Biden administration proposed new federal minimum wage of $15 an hour.

Marriott International Inc. ended 2020 with a loss of $267 million—its first annual loss since 2009—as the company absorbed the effects of the downturn in global travel during a pandemic that emptied most of its rooms last March and continues to sap demand.

Shoppers boosted spending by 5.3% in January, the first increase in four months, buoyed by recent virus-related stimulus payments. The rise followed three consecutive months of declining sales during the 2020 holiday shopping season.