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Alena Botros

Alena Botros

Fortune

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Markets are one Truth Social post from being up or down 5% every day, JPMorgan portfolio manager says 

“The data is almost secondary at this point,” JPMorgan’s Bill Eigen said in a television interview Friday, before the jobs report came out.

friday 2

Fortune

Alena Botros

Americans need to make six figures to afford a median-price home

But there is a silver lining: The housing market is rebalancing.

friday 3

Fortune

Alena Botros

Trump slams Powell again, claiming he knows ‘much more than he does about interest rates’

“I have a Fed person who is not really doing a good job,” the president said at a rally.

30.04.2025 5

Fortune

Alena Botros

Port of L.A. executive director says retailers will soon have only about 7 weeks of full inventories left amid U.S.-China trade war 

“Nobody wins,” Gene Seroka said. “China is America’s factory.”

29.04.2025 3

Fortune

Alena Botros

Zillow sees home prices falling this year. Apart from a blip a couple years ago, it would be the first time prices fell since the Great Financial Crisis

But if anything, it’s a correction, not a crash.

29.04.2025 7

Fortune

Alena Botros

A Trump-induced interest rate cut won’t actually lower mortgage rates

“The president putting this pressure on the Fed would not actually achieve his goal, if his goal is lower mortgage rates,” said Chen Zhao, Redfin...

27.04.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Commercial real-estate giant CBRE sees choppy waters ahead due to tariffs: ‘Our outlook has become less clear’

“Things went from really good to not as good,” CBRE chairman and chief executive Bob Sulentic said in an earnings call Thursday.

24.04.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Scott Bessent says the World Bank and IMF need a total overhaul: ‘Mission creep has knocked these institutions off course’

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in remarks to the Institute of International Finance on Wednesday, said the two agencies are falling short.

23.04.2025 3

Fortune

Alena Botros

If Trump fires Jerome Powell and replaces him with someone more politically pliant, ‘it could be something that backfires on Trump spectacularly,’ researcher says

It’s also unclear how much interest rate cuts can ‘stem the bleeding’ from tariffs, Renaissance Macro’s Neil Dutta said.

22.04.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

‘Peak uncertainty’ may have passed since Trump pressed pause on tariffs, but Fundstrat’s Tom Lee fears we may not have reached ‘maximum pain’

“We’re now in a de-escalation mode when it comes to the tariffs,” UBS’s Evan Brown added.

21.04.2025 5

Fortune

Alena Botros

CEO of $39 billion homebuilding empire says spring selling season is suppressed because of plummeting consumer confidence and affordability constraints

“We’ll just take whatever comes out of the tariffs as it comes at us, once it settles down,” D.R. Horton CEO Paul Romanowski said on an earnings...

17.04.2025 2

Fortune

Alena Botros

Trump’s chip restrictions could slash Nvidia’s revenue by 10%, Wedbush analysts say 

Expect Nvidia revenues to drop in future quarters, analysts wrote after the administration blocked the chipmaker from selling its key chip to China.

16.04.2025 8

Fortune

Alena Botros

Janet Yellen says America would be ‘lucky to skirt a recession’

"We’re in a world of tremendous uncertainty,” the former Federal Reserve chair and U.S. Treasury secretary said.

15.04.2025 5

Fortune

Alena Botros

CEO at $40 billion contractor raked in millions last year—plus perks like private jet trips and social club fees

Quanta Services chief executive took home roughly $16 million last year in cash and equity compensation.

15.04.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

A Pacific Palisades resident purchased a million-dollar burned lot for his daughter while he rebuilds too, so ‘grandpa and grandma will be just down the block’

He imagines it could cost around $4 million and take about three years to rebuild the two.

13.04.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Ray Dalio says a recession is likely—but not a normal one: ‘We are changing the monetary order’

“I’m more worried about the greater dynamic of these conflicts,” the Bridgewater Associates founder said after President Donald Trump pressed...

11.04.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

‘Bond King’ Bill Gross warns Gen Z and millennials will be the biggest losers from tariff-fueled market swings that rely on whether Trump ‘had a good night’s sleep’

The president pressed pause on some tariffs, but after a relief-fueled rally, stocks retreated less than 24 hours later and fears of inflation and a...

10.04.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Headcount at the world’s largest real estate brokerage is shrinking, and two lawsuits claiming sexual assaults inside the company may offer clues as to why 

Critics call eXp Realty a multi-level marketing operation but the brokerage says otherwise.

06.04.2025 30

Fortune

Alena Botros

Wharton’s Jeremy Siegel calls Trump’s tariffs the ‘biggest policy mistake in 95 years’

“I don’t know why Trump didn’t learn the lesson of the Smoot-Hawley tariff,” he said.

04.04.2025 20

Fortune

Alena Botros

Baby boomers are beating millennials in a housing showdown, scooping up homes in all-cash

Baby boomers are buying and selling more homes than millennials, the largest generation, according to a National Association of Realtors report.

03.04.2025 4

Fortune

Alena Botros

Donald Trump announces sweeping reciprocal tariffs against ‘friend and foe’ with a 10% minimum 

“We’re not taking it anymore," the president said, announcing the U.S.' tariffs would amount to half of trading partners'.

03.04.2025 8

Fortune

Alena Botros

Kyla Scanlon, the Gen Z economic commentator who coined the word ‘vibecession,’ says we’re not in one

“What people are feeling is not just vibes,” Scanlon said. “There’s real data to support a downturn.”

02.04.2025 2

Fortune

Alena Botros

The vibecession is back. But a change in mood about the economy is often ‘a harbinger of things to come’: a drop in consumer spending and business investment, economist says

“If you believe the latest survey data…you would think the economy is on the cusp of a recession,” said Jeffrey Roach, LPL Financial chief economist.

02.04.2025 2

Fortune

Alena Botros

A top forecaster sees the market bottoming as Wall Street raises recession forecasts over Trump tariffs

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Moody’s see an elevated chance of a recession this year on the back of tariffs and trade wars.

31.03.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

The housing market now has more ‘downside risks’: layoffs from DOGE and the trade war

A week of back-to-back housing data revealed a tiny boost in sales and modest improvement where home prices and mortgage rates are concerned. But...

29.03.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Boston Fed president says tariff-induced inflation ‘looks inevitable.’ She suspects the central bank will hold rates steady for longer

However, Susan Collins said the inflation could be short-lived.

28.03.2025 6

Fortune

Alena Botros

Zonda’s chief economist never thought Trump, the only real estate mogul-turned-president, would place tariffs on building materials when housing is already so unaffordable. She was wrong

Ali Wolf went from feeling somewhat optimistic about the housing market to concerned in a matter of months. Blame the policy whirlwind.

27.03.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Trump tariffs are ‘a recipe for making Americans worse off,’ Cato Institute says 

No one will be economically better off if reciprocal tariffs are imposed and a trade war escalates, the libertarian think tank told Fortune.

26.03.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Trump tariffs are ‘a recipe for making Americans worse off,’ Cato Institute says 

No one will be economically better off if reciprocal tariffs are imposed and a trade war escalates, the libertarian think tank told Fortune.

26.03.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Citi Wealth chief investment officer says she would not put any more money in stocks right now 

“The equity market is going to be caught in more of a trading range in the near term as...policy fears bounce us around,” Citi’s Kate Moore said.

25.03.2025 7

Fortune

Alena Botros

Wells Fargo says home sales aren’t far off from levels seen in the wake of the Great Recession

"The tepid pace of home sales can not be blamed on a recession," Wells Fargo economists wrote.

24.03.2025 2

Fortune

Alena Botros

CEO of $30 billion homebuilding empire sees ‘weaker-for-longer’ housing market as consumer confidence plummets 

“Mortgage interest rates have remained higher-for-longer, which has left the overall housing market weaker-for-longer,” Lennar chairman and co-CEO...

22.03.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Trump drops executive order stripping a law firm of its government contracts after he says it pledged $40 million in pro bono legal services to his administration’s causes

Paul Weiss lost a client days after the executive order, then Trump said it made a deal with the president.

22.03.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Jerome Powell doubles down on a word that has haunted him, saying pain from tariffs would be ‘transitory’

The Fed’s slowness to catch the inflation surge that began during the pandemic has earned it scads of criticism. Is this time different?

20.03.2025 3

Fortune

Alena Botros

New home construction is stalling as homebuilder sentiment sours over Trump’s tariffs, economists say

“Builders are exercising caution due to the economic uncertainty stemming from the Trump administration’s advancement of a trade war and mass...

19.03.2025 8

Fortune

Alena Botros

Germany’s Siemens to cut over 6,000 jobs globally—with half the roles lost in home market

The reductions will mostly be made in the group's factory automation unit while a small number of positions will be lost in its electric vehicle...

19.03.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

The true genius of Elon Musk is his ‘subsidy harvesting strategy,’ political science professor says

Musk is particularly skilled in collecting money from the government for his companies, Jeb Barnes, a University of Southern California professor,...

19.03.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

A victim of potential housing department cuts: domestic violence survivors who need homes 

If that funding is lost, survivors and their children would either be back in a shelter or back with their abuser, said New Destiny Chief Executive...

18.03.2025 9

Fortune

Alena Botros

Half a dozen members of Trump’s cabinet hold Bitcoin assets, disclosures reveal, with a combined total worth millions

“Headwinds have turned into tailwinds,” for the crypto world because of the new administration, digital asset platform Abra’s CEO said.

13.03.2025 2

Fortune

Alena Botros

Larry Summers says there is a real possibility of a recession, which he calls the result of a ‘self-inflicted wound’

President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have suggested an economic downturn on the back of tariffs would be a transition period....

12.03.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Influential Floridians are reaping the benefits of Trump’s return to the White House

Lobbyists and politicians with ties to Florida are winning in Trump 2.0.

11.03.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Senators ask DOJ to investigate whether Elon Musk is using his insider status in the Trump administration to pressure advertisers back to X 

Five Democratic senators said they’re concerned X is using Musk’s influential role to “extract revenue from advertisers,” the Wall Street...

06.03.2025 2

Fortune

Alena Botros

A staycation nation—Americans hit a 15-year low in travel planning

Blame policy uncertainty on Trump 2.0, according to Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok.

06.03.2025 30

Fortune

Alena Botros

Wall Street is distraught over Trump’s tariffs

The consensus? Tariffs are mostly bad news.

05.03.2025 20

Fortune

Alena Botros

Co-CEOs at $31 billion homebuilder split the title—but one makes millions more than the other

The two CEOs’ total compensation for fiscal 2024 was almost $55 million combined, Lennar’s recently filed proxy statement shows.

04.03.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sees inflation plummeting to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target despite Trump’s tariffs 

Bessent blamed “four years of disastrous policies,” for scorching inflation, claimed the current administration was working everyday to lower...

04.03.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros

Trump’s FTC chair is looking to ‘combat inflation by making sure wages stay up’

The new head of the Federal Trade Commission, Andrew Ferguson, appears set to carry forward his predecessor Lina Khan’s torch and crack down on...

28.02.2025 8

Fortune

Alena Botros

Elon Musk has been entrusted with federal cost-cutting. Meanwhile, his businesses have collected a reported $38 billion in government funds—including millions loaned to Tesla when it was struggling 

Almost two-thirds of the $38 billion in funds were pledged to his businesses in the past five years, per the report.

27.02.2025 200

Fortune

Alena Botros

Trump takes a victory lap on Apple’s $500 billion U.S. investment, but one analyst calls it ‘completely unrealistic’

Another analyst said, “Cook continues to prove that he is 10% politician and 90% CEO,” referring to the Apple chief executive.

25.02.2025 20

Fortune

Alena Botros

Trump is reportedly planning a Postal Service takeover. The White House denies any such executive order is in the works

The president is expected to sign an executive order that would fire the governing board of the U.S. Postal Service and leave the agency to the...

21.02.2025 10

Fortune

Alena Botros