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Australia Will Avoid Recession Thanks to Gen X, BlackRock Says

SYDNEY—Australia’s commodity-rich economy is on track for a soft landing, despite an alarming slowdown over the last year, supported by a household savings and an injection of pension funds as members of Generation X join baby boomers in retirement, according to the world’s biggest asset manager BlackRock .

Craig Vardy, a portfolio manager for BlackRock based in Sydney, told reporters at a briefing that with swarms now tapping their retirement funds, the pool of savings in the economy is rising and is acting to ward off a recession.

Payouts of retirement savings rose by around 7% through 2023 to a record $149 billion Australian dollars (US$98 billion), which is equivalent to about 10.0% of household income, Vardy said. Despite rising interest rates, the total stock of household savings now stands close to A$260 billion.

“There still a lot of savings…which will be a tailwind for the economy, ” Vardy said.

His comments come after data this week showed the economy grew just 0.2% over the fourth quarter of 2023, and by 1.5% compared with the same period a year earlier, the weakest pace in 30 years.

The economic slowdown has developed as the Reserve Bank of Australia has delivered 13 interest rate increases, while surging inflation has fuelled the fastest rise in the cost of living since the 1980s.

“Even though we’ve had a really sharp rise in interest rates, household spending has not collapsed,” Vardy said. And while unemployment is rising, it remains low by historic stands.

“That doesn’t feel recessionary to me. A soft landing is the base case,” Vardy said.

The federal government will also deliver income tax cuts midyear which will further bolster funds sitting in bank accounts, he added.

Given that the economy looks unlikely to fall into a ditch, there is no reason to expect that the RBA will move quickly to cut interest rates, he added.

“If you’re a central bank now, the last thing you want to be doing is cutting interest rates now. You will want a higher degree of confidence that inflation is falling,” Vardy said.

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‘Too Many Hours Waiting for Gelato in Capri.’ America’s Affluent Travellers Head Home.

Affluent U.S. travellers may be sticking closer to home for their big trips this year, travel industry experts say.

Blame it on the soaring cost of travel, unease about the war in the Middle East, or a desire to avoid the headache of sold-out hotels and crowds in popular tourist destinations..Whatever the reason, numerous signs indicate that more Americans with an eye toward luxury travel are opting for domestic vacations this year compared with last, when they ventured abroad in the wake of pent-up demand following the pandemic.

The Arhaus Lounge on courtyard at the White Elephant in Nantucket.
Chi-Thien Nguyen/Elkus Manfredi Architects

Lindsey Ueberroth , the CEO of Preferred Travel Group, comprising more than 1,000 high-end hotels, says that while the group’s international business remains strong, domestic stays have grown so far in 2024, with bookings for the months ahead showing the same rise.

“Airfare is pricey, and some people are avoiding international travel because of the uncertainty in the world,” she says. “As a result, they’re spending their money on pricey resorts in the U.S. instead.”

Ueberroth noted that Brush Creek Ranch in Wyoming’s scenic North Platte River Valley and Montage Kapalua Bay in Maui are two Preferred Travel Group properties that are proving to be top choices among its clientele.

The Harborview room located at the White Elephant in Nantucket.
Chi-Thien Nguyen/Elkus Manfredi Architects

Travel advisors also report a rise in bookings of domestic getaways.

Erica Neher, an advisor with Altour in Paris, is also seeing a renewed interest in domestic getaways from her U.S.-based clients. She says she thinks that the prohibitive cost of top hotels abroad is partially a cause. “I’m hoping the hotel prices start to come down because [uber luxury] travel is becoming unattractive to even those with no or unlimited budget,” she says.

Michael Holtz, the founder and CEO of the global travel firm SmartFlyer, says that its business is up 25% so far this year compared to last.

“Our U.S. bookings are robust. Domestic travel is easier than going abroad, and it can also be less expensive yet more luxurious,” he says.

Holtz cites the all-inclusive Twin Farms in Barnard, Vermont, as an example of a coveted U.S. hotel and says that it’s a scenic resort with great accommodations, cuisine, and service—a place where “the staff accommodates every guest need or want, plus more.” Destination-wise, he says that SmartFlyer’s clients are favouring Hawaii, Jackson Hole, Charleston and Nashville for their stateside forays.

The most significant evidence that affluent travellers have returned to domestic escapes comes from luxury properties themselves, many of which saw a wane or decline in business because their usual guests chose to go abroad as the world opened up from pandemic shutdowns.

Take Post Ranch Inn, a scenic 40-room oceanfront resort in Big Sur, California, where room rates start at US$1,625 a night. Co-owner and managing partner Mike Freed says that occupancy has consistently averaged about 80% a year since the property opened in 1992. Last year was the exception when the number softened.

“There’s no question that many of my regular guests over the years opted for international travel in 2023. Most went to Europe—Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal,” Freed says. “However, they’re back in 2024. Bookings are ahead of last year and already solid for our peak summer season.”

The living room of the Park suite at the White Elephant in Palm Beach.
Chi-Thien Nguyen/Elkus Manfredi Architects

Bill Hayward of Pebble Beach, California, and the president of a lumber company is among the return clientele. He has been staying at Post Ranch Inn since the early ’90s with his wife and says that they usually check in three times annually for between two and three nights each. “Last year, we changed it up by taking several trips to Europe,” he says. “It was catch-up travel after not doing it for so long, but now, we’re back on the Post Ranch Inn bandwagon.”

International air travel can be aggravating, Hayward says, and the couple agreed that it’s more convenient to take a break that’s closer to home.

“We pay around US$7,000 for a three-night stay. It’s cheaper than going to Europe and so much less hassle,” he says, saying the inn is their “happy place.”

Similar to the Big Sur hotel, White Elephant Resorts, inclusive of several properties on Nantucket in Massachusetts and one in Palm Beach, Florida, also saw a dip in demand in 2023, according to president Khaled Hashem . “2022 was a killer year for us with a 20% to 30% increase in business across the resorts, but in 2023, that number stayed flat depending on the property or rose marginally to 3%,” he says. “That is historically low for us as we usually go up between 7% and 8%, even during times of economic distress.”

Fast forward to today, and occupancy is up again at all resorts—Hashem says that the White Elephant in Palm Beach, where nightly room rates average US$1,200, is currently seeing 92% occupancy compared with 78% during the same period last year.

More evidence of this pattern is everywhere.

Brian Honan, the sales and marketing director for Ocean House, set on the water in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, says that currently, confirmed business on the books for the peak months of July and August is almost double what it was last year at this time. And booking pace is up approximately 40% compared to last year. “We are seeing not just increased demand but also that business is being confirmed nearly twice as fast,” Honan says.

At Baccarat New York, demand is growing even further after levelling out in 2023, says director of sales and marketing Rafael Nader. “For 2024, we may be seeing a return to 2022 levels, with our booking pace up nearly 10%,” he says. “This could be tied to a softening of the demand for European destinations, which saw hotel and airfare price points that were tremendously high, even for the luxury traveler.”

Irrespective of prices, Karon Cullen, a marketing consultant who lives in Savannah, says that travelling in America has made her recognise how “varied, beautiful, and rich” the country is. Her domestic trips have also been more enjoyable and leisure-filled. “My husband and I learned our “stay in the U.S.A.” lesson last year after too many hours in the past waiting in lines for gelatos in Capri, museums in Paris, even for the fishmonger at a tiny town in Croatia,” she says.

Cullen and her husband recently stayed in a suite at Ocean House where they savoured long beach walks and has more local escapes in the works for the months ahead.

“The more we travel in the U.S., the more we appreciate the relative ease and diminution of stress,” she says.

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Chasing Passive Income, Americans Turn to Vending Machines

With a brick of cash in his hand and a grin on his face, Jaime Ibanez shows his half-million YouTube subscribers a path to earning money without burning many calories: Vending machines.

In videos with titles such as “This Is HOW MUCH My Vending Machines Made IN 7 DAYS!!” the swoopy-haired 23-year-old Texan makes the rounds to his 51 machines, stocking them and taking the profits.

His channel promotes the idea that with diligence and luck, anyone can go from snacks to riches.

Vending machines might seem an unlikely candidate for trending investment of the 2020s, but the idea has captured the imagination of Americans dreaming of easier money. Some pursue chips and soda as a side hustle because their regular paychecks aren’t enough for them to get by. Others bet on vending machines as a ticket to upward mobility, to quitting their jobs and becoming their own boss.

The startup cost is low and the formula simple. Buy a used machine for $1,500, load it up with products from Costco , charge a 100% markup and let the crinkled dollars roll in. But turning a profit takes real work, and the machines can be a losing proposition when stuck in locations without enough hungry foot traffic.

There is a fair amount of competition, too. America has three million vending machines, an $18.2 billion industry, with the average machine generating about $525 in monthly revenue, according to the National Automatic Merchandising Association.

More than half of operators bring in less than $1 million a year, according to trade publication Automatic Merchandiser. Many are individuals who have other jobs.

Social media has fuelled the notion of finding financial freedom in vending machines. Between 2019 and 2023, the number of posts or comments mentioning passive income and vending machines more than tripled on X and increased by a factor of six on Instagram, according to Sprinklr, a social-media management platform. Google search interest in passive income increased some 75% during that same period.

“There’s a real sense that doing things the so-called right way won’t necessarily land you in the middle class,” said Lana Swartz, a media-studies professor at the University of Virginia who researches financial technologies. “If the old rules no longer apply, then there’s a searching for new rules to get ahead or to get by.”

Some vending-machine newbies say they are on their way to building an automated empire. Others’ dreams get snagged like a bag of Funyuns on a faulty coil.

Making sales while you sleep

Last spring Rob Smith, a 30-year-old truck driver in Orlando, Fla., spent $4,000 on his first machine, a credit-card reader and a load of snacks and drinks.

He recently acquired his fourth machine, which is at an industrial bakery. His first three machines take up three to five hours of his week and bring in about $1,500 a month in revenue, which works out to roughly $750 in profit.

“I’ve made sales at four o’clock in the morning, when I was sleeping,” he said. “That machine is still working whether I’m there or not.”

He hopes to scale up to 30 machines and quit his job.

Smith started looking for extra income because his goal of buying a house felt out of reach with only his day job’s pay. He chose vending specifically after he witnessed a colleague complain about a malfunctioning machine at work and then use it anyway.

“He still put his $2 in,” Smith said. “I was like, ‘I need to get a vending machine as soon as possible.’ ”

Some budding vendors pay $300 or more for online courses to learn the trade. Smith relied on YouTube, Instagram and Reddit to get going.

At one point, he stocked a machine with orange soda against the advice he got in an online forum. When it didn’t sell, he and his family had to drink three dozen cans themselves.

Empty calories

Tom and Missi Hakes of Midway, Ala., started vending after Missi, 40, saw videos on YouTube about the business. The idea seemed more appealing than their stints driving for Uber, shopping for Instacart and trying to make it as YouTubers.

The Hakes, who both have full-time jobs in health insurance, scouted out locations in Atlanta, the closest big city and two hours away. After their best lead fell through, they paid a woman they found on Facebook Marketplace $500 to find a location for them.

She sent them to two spots that didn’t work out, including a cheerleading gym. The manager there was on board until she learned that the Hakes hadn’t operated a vending machine before.

Tom, 48, posted on a forum wondering how to address questions about their industry experience. At their next meeting, with the owner of a gym, they reluctantly followed some of the forum’s advice: They lied and said they had a few machines.

“We didn’t want to get another no,” said Tom.

He then spent a month repairing a used machine they bought for $1,400, staying up on some nights until 2 a.m.

When it was ready, Tom and Missi struggled to wrangle it into the 15-foot U-Haul truck they rented.

“Two people is not enough to move an 800-pound machine,” she said.

The Hakes spent about $2,500 on their vending business, as well as 20 to 30 hours a week for much of last fall.

They pay $50 a month to park it in the gym and it costs about $330 to fill up. It is currently grossing about $30 a week.

If anything, the income has been too passive, Tom said, “because it’s not really doing a lot of sales.”

If the machine isn’t selling more by summer, the Hakes will consider leaving the location, or perhaps vending machines overall.

Hit Facebook Marketplace, then Costco

Used vending machines of questionable quality sell online for as little as $500. More reliable ones cost in the range of $1,000 to $2,000, according to veteran vendors. A new machine with a touch screen and a robotic arm could cost upward of $7,000.

Many used machines have a maintenance issue about once a year, and they need to be cleaned. Cash is dirty, said Ben Gaskill of Everest Ice and Water Systems, a vending-machine maker. “Somebody digs around for coins in the bottom of their purse and it’s got grape jelly on it.”

Vendors shop warehouse stores like Costco and Sam’s Club to stock up. One machine’s worth of snacks or drinks can cost $200 to $300 a month. Owners then charge about twice what they paid for each product, or more. Prices of food from vending machines were up 10.6% year over year in January, according to Labor Department data.

The top-selling items in vending machines are cold drinks, snacks and candy, according to the latest data from Automatic Merchandiser magazine.

“No matter how healthy you try to make the machines, people are going to buy that Snickers bar,” said Lory Strickland, who sells courses and one-on-one coaching with her husband, Barry, under the name The Vending Mentors.

A never-vending story

Selling online classes and coaching can sometimes be more lucrative than a given moneymaking idea itself, said Swartz, the University of Virginia professor.

In online forums, she said, “there’s the joke that if there are people making courses about it, then it’s already oversaturated as a side hustle.”

To capitalise on interest in vending, some experienced operators started selling their expertise to supplement the income coming in from their machines. Some transitioned primarily to training.

Hyping the vending-machine dream predates the internet, though. The first machines in the U.S. sold gum and appeared on train platforms in 1888.

In the 1940s, media outlets cautioned about “get-rich-quick schemes” promoted by “unscrupulous agents involving vending machines.” In 1960, the magazine now known as Kiplinger Personal Finance warned of “vultures in the business” who promised “that an $800 investment may produce $200 a month, and that only a few hours of work a week are required to enjoy such rich pickings.”

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BigBear.ai Stock Tumbles on Weak Results. It’s Been an AI Favorite This Year

BigBear.ai shares are down sharply in late trading Thursday after the AI software provider posted weaker-than-expected revenue for its fourth quarter.

BigBear shares, which been rallied 75% so far this year, are down 21% in late trading, to $3.06.

For the quarter, BigBear reported revenue of $40.6 million, up 0.5% from a year ago and below the Wall Street consensus forecast of $42.8 million.

The company posted adjusted Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, of $3.7 million. BigBear noted that it was its second straight quarter of profitability on that basis.

BigBear recorded a net loss for the quarter of $21.3 million, or 14 cents a share.

For 2024, BigBear is projecting revenue of between $195 million and $215 million, which is above the Street consensus of $174 million, but it’s not clear that the figures are comparable. The company last week completed the acquisition of Pangiam, a provider of AI-based vision systems, for $70 million in stock.

In a letter to shareholders, CEO Mandy Long said the company is not providing adjusted Ebitda guidance for the full year, “as we focus on the critical first steps of integrating Pangiam, and want to reinforce our commitment to moving the business forward and unlocking efficiencies of scale.”

Wall Street has been expecting adjusted Ebitda for 2024 of $7 million, according to estimates tracked by FactSet.

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Former Wells Fargo Advisors Sue the Company Over Cross-Selling

Two former Wells Fargo advisors are suing the firm for breach of contract, unfair business practices, and retaliation after they say they resisted pressure from their supervisors to secretly transfer sensitive client information from the advisor and brokerage side of the company to the private bank.

The advisors, Karen Keusayan and Richard Green, are also alleging that Wells Fargo improperly withheld deferred compensation after they resigned in 2021 and joined Morgan Stanley , where they are still registered.

In their complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the advisors describe themselves as high-producing employees who were loyal to the company even through the “nightmarish” years of 2015 to 2017, when Wells Fargo’s banking division was “publicly scorned” for the fake account scandal.

“This is not the ‘sour grapes’ case of a disgruntled employee(s) who sought a promotion and did not get one,” the advisors say in their complaint. “Neither Ms. Keusayan nor Mr. Green ever wanted to leave Wells Fargo. The goal for each had always been to retire at Wells Fargo.”

Wells Fargo declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The two advisors joined forces in 2015 to form a “production partnership,” according to the complaint, which says they grew their book of business to more than $1 billion by 2020.

In 2018, Wells Fargo introduced a new element to its advisor compensation plan, according to the complaint. Advisors were expected to complete forms called client discovery reviews, or CDRs, detailing information about advisory clients. The plaintiffs say they were directed by a compliance officer to keep the forms secret from the clients themselves.

Instead, the CDRs were intended for Wells Fargo’s private bank, “not the broker-dealer/financial services side where plaintiffs worked,” according to the complaint.

They contend that advisors were pressured to work with clients to complete CDRs, which would be secretly shared with Wells Fargo private bankers who could use them as sales leads.

Before submitting the forms to count toward a quota that resulted in additional compensation, the advisors had to check three boxes stating that they had discussed the information with the client, that the information was accurate, and that they had offered the client an opportunity to obtain a copy of the document. On that last item, the plaintiffs allege that Wells Fargo essentially instructed the advisors to lie, explaining that the document didn’t belong to the advisors, but the bank, even though the information came from their own clients.

“[H]igh-ranking compliance personnel at Wells Fargo Advisors repeatedly told plaintiffs to never deliver or present the CDR to the client since, as it was explained by compliance, the CDR was a bank document,” the complaint states. “Worse, plaintiffs were told not to inform the client that a CDR had been prepared.”

The plaintiffs say that these “dishonest instructions” put them in an “impossible position” and that they soon began raising concerns with their superiors. But each time they spoke out, they were told by their supervisors to continue submitting the forms as a requisite part of the company’s compensation plan.

The complaint describes the advisors’ growing unease with being pressured to falsify the CDR submission document, as well as concerns over the personal privacy of their clients, whose information was allegedly being shared internally without their knowledge or permission.

The advisors say that their bosses undertook a retaliatory campaign against them for continuing to raise objections to the CDR program, “including by failing to provide the banking support that plaintiffs and their clients had come to expect as a benefit of being associated with a large, full-service, retail bank,” according to the complaint.

They also say that the advisors felt their jobs were at risk, offering examples of a hostile or coercive work environment. “Mr. Green was berated by a yelling supervisor in front of fellow employees, and Ms. Keusayan was informed that the bank would not issue a routine credit card to her sister (a customer) if a CDR was not on file,” according to the complaint.

The advisors say the deteriorating work environment ultimately led them to resign around July 2021, after which they were informed that they were ineligible for large sums of deferred compensation—$662,000 for Keusayan and nearly $814,000 for Green.

The advisors are seeking to recoup the deferred comp they say they are owed, and are asking the court for additional damages, as well as an injunction barring Wells Fargo from engaging in the conduct alleged in the complaint, among other relief.

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TikTok Backlash as Congress Heads for Vote to Force Sale

TikTok urged its users to call Congress and lawmakers to drop a bill that could ban the popular video-sharing app in the U.S., and those users listened.

But the plan backfired. Instead of dropping the bill, which was introduced just two days ago, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved it in a 50-0 vote Thursday afternoon. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said he’s bringing it to a floor vote.

That was after beleaguered house staffers across the Capitol grounds endured hours of office phones ringing off the hook in an all-out push from TikTok users.

While TikTok the company has criticized efforts to ban it or crack down on it, this week’s legislative move prompted the social media company to appeal directly to users.

“TikTok is at risk of being shut down in the U.S. Call your representative now,” the app told its users when they logged into their accounts.

The app asked users to enter their ZIP codes and then directed them to their local congressional representatives.

TikTok was responding to a measure proposed Tuesday by Reps. Mike Gallagher (R, Wisc.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D, Ill.), co-chairs of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, that claims TikTok “poses a grave threat to U.S. national security.”

TikTok, based in Singapore, is owned by China-based ByteDance, and that’s what lawmakers object to. The measure focuses on “foreign adversary controlled applications.” It would require ByteDance to divest of TikTok about five months after the law is passed, or risk being removed from app stores in the U.S.

That would make it illegal to distribute TikTok through any U.S. app store or from any U.S. web-hosting platform. TikTok says that is effectively a ban of the platform.

A TikTok spokesperson told Barron’s that “This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States.”

“The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression,” spokesperson Alex Haurek said. “This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and others have repeatedly insisted that ByteDance and TikTok aren’t controlled by the Chinese government or Chinese Communist Party, and that U.S. user data is stored securely in Singapore and the U.S.

Krishnamoorthi said on X that TikTok has “launched a massive propaganda campaign, requiring users to call their representatives, and falsely labeling our legislation a ‘total ban’ of TikTok.”

“Phones are completely bogged down hearing from students, young adults, adults, and business owners who are all concerned at the option of losing their access to the platform,” a Republican aide told Axios.

The National Security Council has called the bill “an important and welcome step” to addressing risks to sensitive U.S. data, and the White House has said that if Congress passes it, President Joe Biden would sign it.

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Rivian Stock Is Flying After EV Maker Unveils Its R2 and R3 Models

Rivian Automotive stock was surging after the company introduced its new vehicle platform on Thursday.

Investors knew the car was coming, but the electric vehicle start-up sprinkled a couple of extra surprises in its presentation to the delight of its shareholders.

As its name suggests, R2—unveiled Thursday afternoon—is Rivian’s second vehicle platform. It’s a lower-cost product that should enable the company to widen its addressable market with a cheaper price tag. The R2 will start at around $45,000, and is slated to hit the streets in 2026.

The timing was the first surprise. CEO R.J. Scaringe said the car will ship in the first half of 2026. That brings some certainty for investors and, of course, the sooner the better.

“I’m so excited about this vehicle,” said Scaringe. “I’m so excited about what it represents for us as a company in terms of achieving scale.”

Rivian’s first platform, R1, is the base for the R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV. Those two vehicles start at around $75,000.

The R2 SUV shown at the event has Rivian’s trademark look. The vehicle—which could be called the R2S if Rivian sticks with its first platform’s naming conventions—is a smaller version of the R1S. The wheelbase is a little shorter than that of the R1S.

The R2’s per-charge range will exceed 300 miles and there will be a tri-motor version that goes from zero to 60 miles an hour in about three seconds.

The second surprise was another vehicle—the R3 and sportier trim called the R3X. It’s another vehicle that will be built on the platform. Pricing and timing for the R3 weren’t part of Scaringe’s prepared remarks. Rivian didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rivian shares were up 13.8% in late trading at $12.55, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were up about 0.9% and 1.4%, respectively.

The stock had gotten a lift even before the R2 launch event, which started around 1 p.m. ET Thursday, thanks to a new call to buy the shares on Wall Street.

Earlier Thursday, Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois launched coverage of Rivian with a Buy rating and a $16 price target.

“Rivian has looked closest to Tesla in spirit, with its own software stack, strong brand identity, global potential, and similar growth pain,” wrote the analyst.

(Product launch events weren’t what Houchois was referring to, looked a little like a Tesla product launch event run by Elon Musk.)

The cost of the new platform will be key, the analyst said.

Rivian “is facing two critical if not existential tests this year: (1) deliver a $35,000-to-$40,000 reduction in unit production costs from redesign, purchasing, and manufacturing efficiency; and (2) demonstrate the R2 model can be developed at a significantly lower cost than R1,” wrote Houchois in his coverage launch report.

The new vehicle and Buy rating should come as a relief for investors. Coming into Thursday trading, Rivian stock was down about 53% so far in 2023. Slowing demand growth for EVs, along with disappointing production guidance from Rivian, has pushed down shares.

Rivian expects to produce about 57,000 units in 2024, roughly the same amount produced in 2023. But Houchois sees a silver lining there.

“Slower EV demand and planned second-quarter [plant] shutdowns will constrain growth this year but could also help deliver the sharp $20,000 reduction in unit costs to achieve positive gross margin exiting 2024,” wrote Houchois.

Rivian hasn’t achieved the scale required yet to generate positive profits and cash flow. It delivered about 50,000 unit to customers in 2023. Tesla wasn’t producing consistent profits until it was delivering roughly four times that amount.

Wall Street expects Rivian to use about $4.3 billion in cash in 2024. It ended 2023 with about $9.4 billion in cash, and $10.5 billion in total liquidity.

Overall, 55% of analysts covering Rivian stock have Buy ratings, according to FactSet. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 55%. The average analyst price target for Rivian stock is about $17.

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Karl Lagerfeld’s Home on the Seine in Paris to Sell at Auction This Month

The minimalist Paris apartment that was the home and studio of the late fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld is headed to auction later this month with a starting price of €5.3 million (US$5.77 million).

Nestled in the heart of the Saint-Thomas d’Aquin district, on the city’s Left Bank, the roughly 2,800-square-foot spread will go under the hammer on March 26 at the city’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, according to a news release from the Paris Notaires Services, which plays an essential role in French real estate transactions.

The apartment is on Quai Voltaire, a Seine-front street, and within a historic building dating from 1694 that belies the contemporary home inside that was Lagerfeld’s until his death in 2019 at the age of 85.

He told the New Yorker in 2007 , as he was moving into the property, that living there would be “like floating in your own spaceship over a very civilised past.”

The home has a stainless steel kitchen.
Mediacorp

Located on the third floor, the apartment has a sprawling living room with a panoramic view of the Seine, polished concrete floors, and walls of towering glass bookshelves that once held the designer’s vast collection of books.

The avant-garde space “embodies Lagerfeld’s visionary aesthetic,” with an “ambiance that is both luxurious and design-oriented,” the news release said.

Elsewhere in the achromatic home is a bedroom overlooking a courtyard, a dressing room, a shower room, a bathroom and a professional-looking stainless steel kitchen.

The entire home, including the bathroom, has a modern aesthetic.
Mediacorp

The auction “represents a rare opportunity to acquire a part of the history of fashion and of French cultural heritage,” according to Paris Notaires Services.

Much of the furniture and art that one filled the apartment has been sold at auction across a series of Sotheby’s sales .

With his iconic signature style of black sunglasses, fingerless gloves and high-starched collars, Lagerfeld was the long-time creative director of Chanel and creator of his own eponymous fashion label.

The apartment’s giant living room has polished concrete floors and walls of glass bookshelves. MEDIACORP
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The Newest Must-Have Home Amenity for the Rich: Purified Air

Visitors to John Bautista and Pedro Salrach’s San Francisco home can’t get enough of the lap pool, sauna and movie theatre. But they also get a whiff of something else they value: clean air.

“The house smells new—and after two years it still smells new,” said Bautista, an attorney. “I know when I’m home because it smells clean and fresh.”

The Glatts’ Maryland home has five HVAC units and eight thermostats to regulate air quality in individual zones. They also added UV lights to the system to prevent mold.
MELISSA LYTTLE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (4)

The six-bedroom home with seven bathrooms and two half-baths includes an elaborate air-filtration system meant to deal with the region’s varying air quality. The tightly sealed floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding doors offer hilltop views of the bay and access to the backyard without sacrificing air quality.

Bautista plans to further upgrade his system this year with the aim of filtering and recirculating indoor air rather than fresh outside air during periods of heavy pollution. Despite the home’s superior air quality, the family can still feel a difference on days when the outdoor air is filled with smoke. “We’ve suffered, as most people have in the Bay Area,” he said. “What we want to have is isolation.”

Developer Gregory Malin, who specialises in wellness-focused real estate, sold Bautista the home for $32 million, he said, plus an additional $5 million for fixtures and furnishings.

The Glatts gave priority to air quality in their $2.5 million home. PHOTO: MELISSA LYTTLE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Luxury homeowners are known to splurge on sleek kitchens, custom decor and art, but they are increasingly turning their attention to something less visible. Forest-fire smoke, the pandemic and increased awareness of sensitivities to mould and other irritants are making their interior environment a priority.

Many are investing in complex systems and flexible designs that promise healthier indoor air but still include spaces, such as glass-enclosed rooms, that make being indoors feel natural.

Listings are increasingly touting pollution-fighting amenities to lure home buyers. In Santa Rosa, Calif., a 13-acre estate for sale at $15 million has a whole-home air purifier. This spring, the Dovecote building, under construction in Manhattan’s Harlem neighbourhood, will offer six, three-bedroom condos built to strict green and clean-air standards, starting at $1.5 million.

Malin, founder of Troon Pacific, a San Francisco-based developer of $15 million to $45 million properties that he calls healthy homes, said he focuses on the smallest details that can affect air quality. New tools allow for more-precise measurement of various particulate matter and carbon dioxide levels, he added. “Covid changed people’s perspective on connecting air quality to health, and the [wildfires] only enhanced that.”

The Bautista home has windows and doors that shut tightly so unfiltered outdoor air doesn’t seep in. PHOTO: JACOB ELLIOTT/TROON PACIFIC
The home has views of San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge. While the area’s air quality is generally good, wildfires cause spikes in air pollution. PHOTO: JACOB ELLIOTT/TROON PACIFIC

His company’s newer homes have exhaust fans, tied to ventilation systems, in laundry rooms and under sinks, where there are various pollutants and harmful cleaning products, said Malin. Their garages have separate exhaust fans that go on long enough for three air exchanges after the door opens. Ionisation-based filtration systems also are included to eliminate airborne particles too tiny to see but hazardous when inhaled.

His homes also feature perforated piping with in-line fans to exhaust air from under slab foundations to keep contaminated soil vapours from entering the houses.

He said his company is considering building to the Living Building Challenge standard, in which homes have their own electricity, water and waste management. Demand is high for such standards, he said, including passive-home construction, where airtight homes are built using specific materials and energy-efficient systems that circulate highly filtered air. He said passive-home certification is costly, especially for big homes, and has limitations that some homeowners don’t want, like bulky windows. In the long run, however, he said eliminating most heating and cooling bills is probably worth it.

Caroline Smythe used hemp block to build a more breathable home in Charleston, S.C. The building material absorbs moisture and keeps humidity steady in the home to prevent mould growth.
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Clean air has become more of a talking point in homeownership, added Elliott Gall, an associate professor of mechanical and materials engineering who researches indoor-air quality at Portland State University.

While high-rises are often built to be airtight, there is a greater focus now on having windows that open while adding better filtration systems, he said. Units with outdoor access sometimes give homeowners another way to control the humidity and indoor air-pollution levels inside the home, he added.

To improve the air quality in her new Charleston, S.C., home, Caroline Smythe, 67, imported a hemp block covered in a mixture of lime and sand for the construction, rather than standard brick. Living in a high-humidity area means moisture can cause mould, said Smythe, whose 2,400-square-foot Lowcountry home was completed in 2023 for about $1 million, including $250,000 for the land.

Incorporating the new material allows the moisture to get absorbed in the walls and keeps humidity steady in the home. “It has very much an earthy feel,” said Smythe of her thick, soundproof walls.

Inside, the home’s two bedrooms and two offices have additional air-filtration elements, including stand-alone air filters for each bedroom. Smythe, a psychiatrist, chose a bamboo kitchen countertop and mineral-based wall paint to prevent any chemical off-gassing. “It makes a huge difference,” she said.

Homeowners have long tried to improve air quality. In the early 1900s, homes that let in fresh air were critical to good health, but by the 1950s some owners were trying to tame outdoor air pollution by focusing on better insulation. More recently, the pandemic made access to outdoor air essential, and turned the focus again to indoor-outdoor living.

Today’s picture is mixed. Climate change has made outdoor air quality less reliable, with the added problems of prolonged forest fires.

Many people are realising their indoor air quality is often compromised by a combination of poor indoor airflow, activities like cooking and cleaning, and outdoor pollutants that settle into confined spaces, said Gall. Homeowners now want better control over their wider living space, including modifiable systems that deal with both indoor and outdoor pollution, he added.

In Manhattan, the Charlotte of the Upper West Side has seven full-floor units. A heating-and-cooling system filters fresh air directly into each unit. The air is also treated with UV light. PHOTO: JOSHUA MCHUGH
CONTACT: kristen@m18pr.com

Jason Glatt, a commercial window contractor, and his wife, Lauren Glatt, a stay-at-home mom, of North Bethesda, Md., built a $2.5 million home that includes a children’s slide into a basement playroom, an attic-level cigar room and plenty of entertaining space.

The 11,000-square-foot home’s most striking feature, however, may be the five HVAC units tucked inside utility closets and other closed rooms, controlled by eight thermostats that regulate the air quality as well as temperature in each part of the home. Their $120,000 HVAC system also includes UV lights to prevent mold.

Seth Ballard, an architect who worked with the Glatt family, said individually controlled temperature zones and more return-air vents promote better air flow. Costs can be $100,000 to $200,000 for a 10,000- to 15,000-square-foot house. “They are choosing this over a kitchen countertop,” he said of homeowners in general.

The Charlotte’s air-filtration and passive-home construction added an estimated 15% to building costs. PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER PAYNE/ESTO
Contact: kristen@m18pr.com

Charlotte of the Upper West Side, a building in Manhattan that opened in 2023, has seven full-floor units, each with a private entrance. The building has airtight construction with enhanced insulation. Each unit has an independent heating-and-cooling system with fresh-air filtration directly into the home that isn’t shared with other spaces.

The system can achieve full air exchange 13 times a day in normal-use mode and more than 28 times a day in boost mode, said the building’s developer John Roe of the New York-based Roe Corp. The building uses louvers outside the windows to deflect the heat of the sun and cut energy use on summer days.

Roe, who lives in one of the building’s 3,570-square-foot, four bedroom, 4.5-bathroom homes, said the air-filtration system and strict passive-home construction added 15% to the building cost.

Three of the building’s units are on sale, from $8.35 million to $17 million.

He said there is little dust in the home, and he swears it now takes longer for his cut white hydrangeas to wilt.

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Yes, Even Cookie Monster Is Upset About ‘Shrinkflation’

Cookie Monster is a blue furry muppet who lives on a fake street, but even he is sick of a real menace in supermarket aisles.

“Me hate shrinkflation!,” the “Sesame Street” character wrote to his 626,000 followers on X. “Me cookies are getting smaller.”

Shrinkflation—when companies shrink their products but not the price—has been a hot topic as Americans spend more of their disposable income on food than they have in 30 years . Shrinkflation saves companies money, but politicians have called it greed. It’s been showing up everywhere: fewer sheets of toilet paper in a roll; less juice in a bottle; or in Cookie Monster’s case, smaller cookies that cost the same as when they were bigger.

President Biden has been critical of shrinkflation lately, calling it “a rip-off” by companies who he said are giving Americans less for every dollar they spend.

“As an ice-cream lover,” Biden said in an Instagram video posted last month on the same day as the Super Bowl, “what makes me the most angry is that ice-cream cartons have actually shrunk in size but not in price.”

On Monday, the White House weighed in on Cookie Monster’s post.

“C is for consumers getting ripped off,” the White House posted on X . “President Biden is calling on companies to put a stop to shrinkflation.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) told Cookie Monster she and Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) “have a bill for that.”

Called the Shrinkflation Prevention Act, the bill was introduced by the Democratic senators last week. It would give the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general the authority to punish companies engaging in shrinkflation.

Snacks such as chips and cookies have become 26% more expensive since January 2019, according to a report by Casey released in December . Nearly 10% of the price increase was due to shrinkflation, the report said.

Oreo fans have noticed less cream in the black-and-white cookies, but the company behind them has said there hasn’t been a change to the cookie-to-cream ratio. French supermarket chain Carrefour started attaching labels to products in September warning shoppers of what it deems to be shrinkflation. And even the rich and famous have noticed: Rapper Cardi B has ranted about high inflation and rising lettuce prices . “Naaaaaa,” she tweeted last year, “grocery shopping prices are ridiculous right now.”

David Chavern , the chief executive of the Consumer Brands Association, which represents major food makers, said industry leaders understand the pressures of inflation on Americans and have asked to meet with Biden.

“This is a serious issue and needs responsible leadership, not gimmicks or muppet memes,” he said. “In the meantime, we will continue our efforts to provide the best products at the most competitive price.”

“Sesame Street” characters have been diving into real world issues on social media, gaining differing reactions from politicians.

When the Covid-19 vaccine was approved for children, Big Bird tweeted he got the shot.

“My wing is feeling a little sore, but it’ll give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me and others healthy,” he wrote .

Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz   tweeted that it was , “Government propaganda…for your 5 year old!”

In January, Elmo asked a question on X : “How is everybody doing?,” only to get inundated with replies from people talking about their mental health and saying how bleak their lives are, garnering a tweet from Biden.

“I know how hard it is some days to sweep the clouds away and get to sunnier days,” Biden responded to the red muppet . “Our friend Elmo is right: We have to be there for each other, offer our help to a neighbour in need, and above all else, ask for help when we need it.”

Representatives for “Sesame Street” didn’t respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

As for Cookie Monster’s shrinkflation rant, Edgar Dworsky is happy to have more allies.

“I’ve been campaigning against shrinkflation for more than three decades,” said Dworsky, who calls out companies engaging in shrinkflation on his websites ConsumerWorld.org and MousePrint.org. “I welcome the help of such prominent figures as Cookie Monster and of course, the president.”

In the meantime, Cookie Monster seems to have found his own shrinkflation solution.

“Guess me going to have to eat double da cookies!,” he tweeted .