An average of only 28% of the workforce last week returned to the office in the 10 major cities monitored by Kastle Systems. That compares with more than 40% the first week in December.

The Labor Department’s consumer-price index rose 7.1% in December from the same month a year earlier, up from 6.8% in November. That would mark the fastest pace since 1982 and the third straight month in which inflation exceeded 6%.

The U.S. is planning to hand out $10 billion to help upstart companies gain access to capital in a bid to rev up business in disadvantaged communities and spur a broader economic recovery from the pandemic. The State Small Business Credit Initiative will direct money to states, territories and tribal governments for programs that provide venture capital or encourage private lenders to issue loans to small firms. The program revives a policy put into place following the 2007-2009 recession, when banks cut back on lending to small firms and is more than six times as large the cost of the earlier program.

U.S. pension funds’ private-equity investments swelled to an average 8.9% of holdings in 2021 after three years of straight growth. That amounts to roughly $480 billion of state and local pension fund assets tracked by the Federal Reserve, up from about $300 billion in 2018.

Federal Reserve officials discussed a faster timetable for raising interest rates, December meeting minutes show, signaling greater discomfort with inflation.

The focus on automating hotel operational processes intensified due to the industry labor crisis. Contactless check-in/check-out and automation of day-to-day room rate setting are two leading examples of technology that will be increasingly adopted and refined in response to the lack of staff to complete processes manually.

Entities tied to Adam Neumann, who built office co-working giant WeWork, have been quietly acquiring majority stakes in more than 4,000 apartments valued at more than $1 billion in Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, Tenn., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and other U.S. cities. Many of these investments occurred within the past year.

While some investors expect that inflation, which reached a 39-year high in November, has peaked, others are worried that Omicron could prolong supply-chain disruptions, adding further pressure to prices.

The Baird/STR Hotel Stock Index — comprising 20 of the largest hotel companies publicly traded on a U.S. stock exchange by market capitalization — was up 11.5% year to date as of Nov. 30. By comparison, the index finished 2020 down 13.2%.

The S&P 500 is headed toward a 28% advance for 2021 and has hit 70 highs. It is the third straight year of double-digit gains for the broad index, and the second in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite have gained 19% and 22%, respectively, this year, helping send the major indexes to their best three-year performance since 1999.