Raphael Stevens

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    With foreign tourists boycotting the U.S., businesses brace for falling sales

    International tourists are skipping trips to the U.S. amid tensions tied to trade, immigration and territory.
    Many businesses that rely on foot traffic from overseas visitors are already seeing a financial hit, even before heading into peak travel season.
    New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Orlando, San Francisco and Las Vegas are examples of cities with a large share of foreign visitors.

    Kaia Matheny (left) and Nora Lamphiear (right), co-owners of Adrift Restaurant in Anacortes, Washington.
    Kaia Matheny.

    Anacortes, a small coastal town in Washington state, typically bustles with tourists during the summer months.
    But local business owners like Kaia Matheny are bracing for less foot traffic — and a financial hit — this year as tensions around trade and concerns about immigration policy push foreigners to reconsider the U.S. as a travel destination.

    Matheny is the co-owner of Adrift Restaurant, a nautical themed farm-to-table eatery in downtown Anacortes. The town, a gateway to the San Juan islands, is a two-hour drive south of Vancouver.
    She’s seen sales fall amid fewer customers from Canada, which is generally the U.S.’ top source of international visitors. Air and land arrivals from Canadians fell 14% and 32%, respectively, in March compared to the same time in 2024, according to Tourism Economics.
    A sharp decline in foot traffic among foreign tourists looks set to persist through summer, data shows. Matheny is “wary” about what that will mean during peak season, which typically kicks off in June.
    Tourism “won’t be what it is usually,” Matheny said. “We’ll batten down the hatches and make the best of it.”

    A ‘quickly souring’ travel outlook

    Tourism is a big U.S. export: Foreign visitors spent more than $180 billion here in 2024, more than all agricultural exports combined, said Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association.

    However, international visits to the U.S. fell 12% year-over-year in March, according to Oxford Economics.
    It’s not just Canada: Visits from Western Europe, Asia and South America — historically the U.S.’ highest-value travel markets — are also down by double-digit percentages, according to the U.S. Travel Association.

    Data suggests the weakness will persist through the summer.
    Air bookings for overseas summer travel to the U.S. are pacing about 10% behind the same time last year, according to Tourism Economics, which is affiliated with Oxford Economics. (These were bookings made as of March.)
    Canada and Mexico are worse, data show. Summer bookings from Canada to the U.S. are down more than 30%, for example.
    “Foreign visitations to the US are the largest services export in the country and the outlook is quickly souring,” Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a research note published in May.
    The loss in international tourism is expected to cost the U.S. economy $10 billion this year compared to 2024, said Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics. The U.S. Travel Association pegs the potential loss at an even higher $21 billion in 2025, if current travel trends continue.
    “It’s alarming,” Freeman said. Many businesses and destinations “count on the international visitor, in particular.”

    The tourism pullback appears to be “more a U.S. issue right now” rather than a broad global weakness in travel, since other regions are seeing positive tourism growth, said Lorraine Sileo, senior analyst and founder of Phocuswright Research, a market research firm.
    Domestic tourism isn’t poised to pick up the slack — the market was slowing heading into 2025 and the “revenge travel” trend, which had propelled Americans to travel due to pent-up demand after Covid-19 lockdowns, has largely been played out, she said.
    “I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom for the U.S. travel industry,” Sileo said. “But it’ll be a tough year.”

    Travelers have ‘a great deal of fear’

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Newark Liberty International Airport.
    Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images

    Many factors underpin the decline in international visitors, travel experts said.
    For one, President Donald Trump has announced several rounds of tariffs, sparking fears of a global trade war and raising the average import duties to the highest level since the early 1900s.
    Trade wars are “intrinsically combative” with the international community, Sacks said.
    In early April, China issued a risk alert for tourists heading to the U.S., citing deteriorating economic relations and domestic security. Several European nations also recently issued U.S. travel advisories, citing reasons such as heightened border security and potential issues around travel documents.
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    Trump has also drawn the ire of Canadian citizens and lawmakers through repeated suggestions that Canada become the 51st U.S. state, experts said. Likewise for Greenland, which is part of Denmark.
    “Now is also the time to choose Canada,” former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a speech in February. “It might mean changing your summer vacation plans to stay here in Canada and explore the many national and provincial parks, historical sites and tourist destinations our great country has to offer,” he added.
    Searches conducted in March and April from Canadians for travel to the U.S. dropped 50% from 2024, according to Beyond, a data provider on the global short-term rental market.

    “We saw a nearly immediate drop in Canadian search activity after the tariff news broke back in February,” Julie Brinkman, CEO of Beyond, wrote in an e-mail. “While interest in the U.S. dropped, Mexico saw a 35% increase in searches. That tells us travelers aren’t canceling trips — they’re choosing new destinations.”
    Anecdotes on social media support that notion.
    “Proud to say we’ve cancelled 3 US based cruises over the next 2 years and instead will be vacationing in Europe and Canada,” one Reddit commenter wrote recently.

    Growing concern tied to U.S. immigration policy is perhaps the most consequential development in recent months, experts said.
    “Whether fair or not, a perception is taking hold that more people are being detained, more devices [are] being searched and legal travelers [are] being deported back to their origin country,” Freeman said. “That creates a great deal of fear.”

    Business profits fall ‘sharply’ amid lost customers

    Nationally, small and mid-sized business profits have already “deteriorated sharply” amid the travel slowdown, said Aaron Terrazas, an economist at Gusto, a payroll and benefits provider.
    The share of “tourism” companies that are profitable fell to 32% in April 2025, down from 41% and 43% in April 2024 and 2023, respectively, according to Gusto. The category includes tour operators, condo or time-share agencies and ticket or reservation agencies.
    The share of profitable “accommodation” businesses fell to 36%, down from 44% and 45%, Gusto found. The category includes small hotels and motels, guesthouses, cottages and cabins, and RV parks and campgrounds.

    Tourists visit the Charging Bull of Wall Street in lower Manhattan on March 28, 2025, in New York City.
    Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    Slower customer traffic — and lost income — are the main culprits, rather than an increase in expenses from inflation or labor costs, Terrazas said.
    The erosion in profitability and revenue is “unusually sharp and unusually sudden, particularly for a time of year when we normally start to see travel pick up,” Terrazas said. “There’s no obvious reason why domestic travel would collapse so sharply and so suddenly in a single month, whereas for international travel there are more obvious explanations.”
    The longer the slowdown continues, the greater the odds businesses will be forced to make tough choices and potentially cut staff, Terrazas said.

    Foreign visitations to the US are the largest services export in the country and the outlook is quickly souring.

    Ryan Sweet
    chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics

    Financial losses come at a time when the U.S. hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels of travel, further pressuring businesses that rely on tourism, Freeman said. The U.S. welcomed 72 million foreign visitors in 2024, shy of the 78 million in 2019, he said.
    While non-residents account for less than 10% of all U.S. tourism demand, they are far more “lucrative” spenders, Freeman said.
    The average overseas visitor spends more than $4,000 per person per visit, eight times more than the average American tourist spends domestically, Freeman said. The average Canadian and Mexican tourist spends $1,200 per visit.

    ‘It’s a community impact’

    Less foreign travel will have a disproportionate impact on certain areas.
    Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Miami; New York; Orlando, Florida; and San Francisco, for example, account for the largest share of foreign tourists, said Sweet of Oxford Economics.
    While New York has a large, diverse economy that can likely absorb a tourism loss without going into recession, the same probably isn’t true of places like Las Vegas or Honolulu, he said.

    Tourists take photos near the Las Vegas strip.
    Robyn Beck | Afp | Getty Images

    “These economies are very, very sensitive to tourism,” said Sweet. “This is their main economic driver.”
    So far, Matheny, the co-owner of Adrift Restaurant, has seen monthly sales fall 4% relative to last year — not a “huge” decrease, but a “noticeable” one, she said.
    The restaurant has had to cut its buying by an equivalent amount, she said. That in turn hurts the local economy in Anacortes, since the restaurant sources the bulk of its food from local farms and fisheries — hurting their bottom lines, too, said Matheny.
    “It’s a community impact,” she said. More

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    Powell may have a hard time avoiding Trump’s ‘Too Late’ label even as Fed chief does the right thing

    History suggests that President Donald Trump’s new “Too Late” nickname for Fed Chair Jerome Powell has a strong chance of coming true.
    Fed leaders have been criticized as slow to act absent compelling data showing them something needs to be done.
    Powell is in a no-win situation with threats to both sides of the Fed mandate “and that’s why he’s doing the exact right thing at this moment, which is nothing, because one way or another it’s going to be a mistake,” economist Dan North said.

    U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on interest rate policy in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 7, 2025.
    Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

    History suggests that President Donald Trump’s new “Too Late” nickname for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has a strong chance of coming true, though he’d hardly be alone if it does.
    After all, central bank leaders have a long history of being too reluctant to raise or lower interest rates.

    Whether it was Arthur Burns keeping rates too low in the face of the stagflation threat during the 1970s, Alan Greenspan not responding quickly enough to the dotcom bubble in the ’90s, or Ben Bernanke’s dismissal of the subprime housing prices as “contained” and not lowering rates prior to the 2008 financial crisis, Fed leaders have long been criticized as slow to act absent compelling data showing them something needs to be done.
    So some economists think Powell, faced with a unique set of challenges to the Fed’s twin goals of full employment and low inflation, has a strong chance of wearing the “Too Late” label.
    In fact, many of them think nothing is exactly what Powell should do now.
    “Historically, go back and look at any Federal Reserve, and I’m going back into the ’70s, the Fed is always late both ways,” said Dan North, senior economist at Allianz Trade North America. “They tend to wait. They want to wait to make sure that they won’t make a mistake, and by the time they do that, usually it is too late. The economy is almost always in recession.”

    However, he said that given the volatile policy mix, with Trump’s tariffs threatening both growth and inflation, Powell has little choice but to sit tight absent more clarity.

    Powell is in a no-win situation, with threats to both sides of the Fed mandate, “and that’s why he’s doing the exact right thing at this moment, which is nothing, because one way or another it’s going to be a mistake,” North said.
    Trump wants a cut
    Though Trump said the economy probably will be fine no matter what the Fed does, he has been badgering the central bank lately to cut rates, insisting that inflation has been slayed.
    In a Truth Social post after the Fed decision this week to keep rates unchanged, Trump declared that “Too Late’ Jerome Powell is a FOOL, who doesn’t have a clue.” The president declared there is “virtually NO INFLATION,” something that was true for March at least when the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge came in unchanged for the month.
    However, the president’s tariffs have yet to be felt in the real economy, as they are barely a month old.
    Recent economic data do not indicate price spikes nor a perceptible slowdown in economic activity. However, surveys are showing heightened worries in both the manufacturing and service sectors, while consumer sentiment has soured, and nearly 90% of S&P 500 companies mentioned tariff concerns on their quarterly earnings calls.
    At this week’s post-meeting news conference, though, Powell repeatedly voiced confidence in what he called a “solid” economy and a labor market “consistent with maximum employment.”
    No ‘pre-emptive’ cuts
    The 72-year-old Fed chair also dismissed any idea of a pre-emptive rate cut, despite what sentiment survey data is indicating about current conditions.
    “Powell offered two reasons for not being in a hurry. The first – ‘no real cost to waiting’ – is one he may live to regret,” Krishna Guha, head of global policy and central bank strategy at Evercore ISI, said in a client note. “The second – ‘we are not sure what the right thing will be’ – makes more sense.”
    Powell has his own particular history of being late, with the Fed reluctant to hike when inflation began spiking in 2021. He and his colleagues labeled that episode “transitory,” a call that came back to haunt them when they had to institute a series of historically aggressive hikes that still have not brought inflation back to the central bank’s 2% target.
    “If they’re waiting for the labor market to confirm whether they should cut rates, by definition they’re too late,” said Joseph LaVorgna, chief economist at SMBC Nikko Securities and a senior economic advisor to Trump in his first term. “I don’t think the Fed is being forward-looking enough.”
    Indeed, if the Fed is using the labor market as a guide, it almost certainly will be behind the curve. An old adage on Wall Street says, “the labor market is the last to know” when a recession is coming, and history has been fairly consistent that job losses generally don’t start until after a downturn has begun.
    LaVorgna thinks the Fed is hamstrung by its own history and will miss this call as well, as policymakers unsuccessfully try to game out the impact of tariffs.
    “We’re not going to know if it’s too late until it’s too late,” he said. “Economic history combined with current market pricing suggests there’s a real risk the Fed will be too late.” More

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    A rare platinum Rolex is heading to auction and could fetch $1.7 million

    A one-of-a-kind 1999 platinum Rolex Daytona, custom-made and never commercially sold, is hitting Sotheby’s auction on May 11 — and could fetch up to $1.7 million.
    Rolex didn’t start producing platinum Daytonas until 2013, making this early piece exceptionally rare. Only four were made for a private family commission, and this is the last one to hit the market.
    Rare watches like this are booming as investment assets, with global demand from younger and international buyers helping drive prices up more than 125% over the past decade.

    A rare 1999 platinum Rolex Daytona featuring a mother-of-pearl dial with diamond hour markers — one of only four known to exist.
    Courtesy of Sotheby’s

    A legendary timepiece is about to step into the spotlight.
    A 1999 platinum Rolex Daytona is heading to auction on Sunday at Sotheby’s Geneva, and could sell for up to $1.7 million.

    The watch is made from platinum, a material Rolex did not use on Daytona models until 2013. Its face is mother-of-pearl, set with 10 diamonds. Unlike nearly every other Rolex on the market, it was not part of a standard collection. It was privately commissioned, custom-made for a client — something almost unheard of for Rolex.
    “It’s very unusual to come across a commission,” said Pedro Reiser, senior watch specialist at Sotheby’s. “There are other brands which might be more flexible and do these kinds of exercises, maybe on a regular basis — but not in the space of Rolex pieces where you barely can come across any commission whatsoever.”
    Only four of these watches are known to exist, made for the same family, each with a different dial. The watch heading to the auction block is the last one to be sold. The others have already gone for massive prices, topping $3 million.
    There is big hype around this small work of metal. It is believed to have been created under the leadership of Patrick Heiniger, Rolex’s CEO from 1992 to 2008. He ran the company during a time of major growth and secrecy and helped turn Rolex from a respected watch brand into a global luxury icon.

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    While rumors have swirled that Heiniger personally commissioned or wore a similar platinum Daytona, Reiser cautions that there is no confirmed link to this watch.

    “That’s more of a rumor,” Reiser said. “Personally, I’ve never seen him with this piece, but I know that he used to love platinum watches — mainly Day-Date models. It’s a nice story that accompanies the watch, but I think it’s more of a myth.”
    The fact that Rolex made a platinum Daytona in 1999, long before it introduced platinum models publicly in 2013, is a major part of the watch’s mystique.
    “Back then, they only existed in stainless steel, yellow gold and white gold,” Reiser said. “Having a platinum — the only known platinum Zenith Daytona — is very special.”

    Rolex didn’t begin producing platinum Daytonas until 2013, making this 1999 custom-ordered timepiece a historic anomaly in the brand’s legacy.
    Courtesy of Sotheby’s

    This particular model stands apart even from its siblings.
    “This is the only one that has a diamond-set dial,” Reiser said. “The others had dark mother-of-pearl, lapis lazuli and turquoise stone dials, but no diamonds.”
    As more people, especially wealthy collectors and younger buyers, increasingly see rare watches as investments, the prices of these rare timepieces have climbed.
    According to Knight Frank’s latest index, watches have jumped more than 125% in value over the past decade, ranking them among the top-performing luxury investments, just behind rare whisky and high-end designer furniture. Even after a slight cooling, with prices rising only 1.7% over the past year, the five-year growth rate for watches of 52.7% signals the category remains a reliable long-term play.
    Demand has only broadened, with more international buyers and a wave of under-30 collectors entering the market, Reiser said. More

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    Newark air traffic controllers lost contact with planes again in overnight outage

    Air traffic controllers who guide planes in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport again lost contact with planes.
    The outage lasted about 90 seconds overnight Friday, when far fewer planes are flying, the FAA said.
    The incident comes a day after the Trump administration announced plans to overhaul aging air traffic controller technology.

    A man stands outside Terminal C with the airport control tower in the background at Newark Liberty International Airport, on May 6, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey.
    Andres Kudacki | Getty Images

    Air traffic controllers who guide planes in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport lost radar and communication with aircraft before dawn on Friday in another 90-second outage, the Federal Aviation Administration said, hours after the Trump administration unveiled a plan to overhaul the aging technology that keeps U.S. airspace space safe.
    The outage occurred at about 3:55 a.m. ET, the FAA said. There are far fewer aircraft flying overnight, so disruptions were minimal compared with a similar outage on the afternoon of April 28, which snarled air travel for days.

    Several controllers took leave because of the stress of that April incident, the FAA said. That exacerbated low staffing levels at the Philadelphia facility, where controllers oversee planes at Newark, New Jersey, airport, forcing the FAA to slow the airport’s traffic.
    Like in the April incident, Friday’s outage left controllers unable to communicate with aircraft and their radar screens dark.
    On Thursday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy unveiled plans to overhaul several aging facilities and modernize technology used by controllers, who oversee about 45,000 flights a day in the U.S.
    Aviation-industry groups and labor unions applauded the proposal and said Thursday that Congress should approve at least $31 billion over the next three years for improvements. That includes $12.5 billion outlined in a House spending proposal last month, for air traffic control modernization and more hiring of controllers.

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    ESPN will call its forthcoming flagship streaming app simply ‘ESPN,’ sources say

    ESPN’s all-access streaming service will simply be called ESPN, sources told CNBC.
    Pricing for the service will be announced next week. CNBC has previously reported the price is expected to be either $25 or $30 a month.
    ESPN executives decided to name the streaming application “ESPN” to simplify what has become a confusing streaming landscape, filled with different product names and prices.
    ESPN+ will continue to exist after the launch of ESPN’s more robust streaming product this fall.

    A general view of the ESPN logo on a camera at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 6, 2024.
    Wes Hale | UFL | Getty Images

    At long last, ESPN has chosen a name for its upcoming all-access streaming service.
    Ready?

    It’s “ESPN.”
    Disney’s sports media division will announce the new — and also sort of old — name for the all-access streaming application at a media event next week, according to people familiar with the matter who declined to be named speaking about not-yet-public details. A Disney spokesperson declined to comment.
    Disney executives have referred to the streaming product, which is expected to cost $25 or $30 a month, as “flagship” internally for the past two years as they have developed the service. It will consist of everything ESPN has to offer, including all games; programming on other ESPN cable networks such as ESPN2 and the SEC Network; ESPN on ABC; fantasy products; new betting tie-ins; studio programming; documentaries and more.
    This will differ from ESPN’s current streaming product ESPN+, which does not include the most-watched live games, such as Monday Night Football, that currently only air exclusively on traditional pay-TV. ESPN+ costs $11.99 per month and can be bundled with Disney+ and Hulu for $16.99 per month with commercials. ESPN+ will remain a less expensive offering for consumers, according to people familiar with the matter.
    ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro decided to name the application ESPN to simplify what has become a cluttered streaming world, filled with different media products that can be bundled with other services at different price points, according to those people. The CNBC Sport newsletter first reported in February that ESPN executives were considering naming the application ESPN among other options.

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    The new ESPN streaming service is a new distribution mechanism, but most of the content is not new. Rather, the launch is about introducing consumers to a different way customers can access ESPN’s programming. That led executives to gravitate toward carrying over the legacy name, said the people.
    The ESPN mobile application will be reimagined and act as the gateway to the all-access service on smart TVs and devices. Pay-TV subscribers who already get ESPN will automatically be able to authenticate into the new app to get the digital bells and whistles that are not available through cable TV. That overlap also played into executives’ decision to maintain uniformity with the name ESPN, rather than a different name that may increase confusion, the people said.
    ESPN will next week announce the pricing of the application, as well as associated bundled discounts, Disney CEO Bob Iger said Wednesday during Disney’s quarterly earnings conference call.
    ESPN has previously said the service will debut in the fall. More

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    Startup Teal Health wins FDA approval for at-home test for cervical cancer screening

    The FDA approved the first at-home test for cervical cancer screening, developed by Teal Health.
    In clinical trials, the accuracy of self-testing with Teal’s wand matched that of a cancer screening performed in a doctor’s office.
    Teal will offer its home screening test through a telehealth visit, eliminating the need for an appointment at a doctor’s office

    The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first-ever at-home test for cervical cancer screening, developed by San Francisco-based startup Teal Health.
    The company began developing the prototype for its Teal Wand just over five years ago. The concept was to make cervical cancer screening more accessible via telehealth and a test that could be self-administered at home, rather than at a doctor’s office.

    “The pandemic showed everyone that telehealth is a thing that is preferred … and made it easier to get care for most Americans,” said Kara Egan, CEO of Teal Health, adding that Covid also demonstrated “at-home testing was a thing that people could handle and really understand.”
    The Teal Wand works much like a tampon applicator, with a large swab that the user can insert themselves to collect a sample for testing. The FDA designated the tool as a breakthrough device after the company’s clinical trial results showed the precision of the self-administered test was comparable with an in-office screening performed by a clinician, with a 96% accuracy rate.
    Teal plans to make the wand available in California first, starting in June.

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    The company has had discussions with carriers about insurance coverage for the test as a preventive screening, which for most women would be covered without copays just like an annual doctor’s visit.
    The American Cancer Society recommends women get screened for cervical cancer every three years starting at age 21.

    Yet Egan says 1 in 4 women fall behind on screening, in part because they can’t find time for an in-person gynecologist appointment, a problem especially for women in rural areas who often have to travel beyond their community to get to a doctor.  
    “This is about increasing access to care and making sure we have more options to get that care,” she said.
    Ahead of its anticipated FDA approval, Teal Health raised $10 million in its latest funding round in January to help ramp up production for the launch of the Teal Wand. The investment was led by Forerunner Ventures and Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective. The company has raised a total of $23 million from investors including Serena Williams’ Serena Ventures, as well as testing firm LabCorp.  
    The company’s milestone comes as investors have grown more interested in women’s health tech.
    Last year, there was an influx of $680 million into the space invested across 30 deals, according to data from Deloitte. About 60% of those funds went to later-stage investments, according to Jen Radin, principal in Deloitte’s life sciences and health-care practice.
    “From 2023 to 2024 femtech saw 41% growth, outpacing overall health tech, which grew only 10%,” Radin said.
    FemHealth Ventures managing partner Maneesha Ghiya says while investors are now more cautious, in general, interest in women’s health tech is moving beyond maternity and menopause.   
    “Many more people are thinking about women’s health more broadly and supporting these types of innovations — and that includes from the large, established players like medtech, pharma, biotech, large public companies that are thinking more broadly about women’s health,” Ghiya said.

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    Something ‘striking’ is happening with apartment renters

    More renters are choosing to stay in their apartments when their leases are up.
    Typically, about half of apartment renters in large urban markets move when their leases end, but some of the largest landlords are now seeing turnover at just 30%.
    There are a number of reasons for the change, including the cost of moving and unaffordable for-sale market, among other things.

    Renting has its benefits. It’s usually cheaper than buying a home, and it offers the freedom of moving without much hassle. That’s why about half of apartment renters in large urban markets usually move when their leases expire. But that is not happening now.
    The low turnover is “striking,” according to real estate analyst Alex Goldfarb at Piper Sandler. He said some of the largest landlords are seeing turnover at just 30% compared with the industry norm of 50%.

    He cited reasons including an unaffordable for-sale market, lack of rental supply on the coasts, nervousness about the economy and tariffs, the cost of moving and a shift to suburban apartments, which tend to be larger and more comfortable.
    “The consequence is landlords are getting better pricing from renewals, as people don’t want to leave,” said Goldfarb. “It also improves [their] cash flow, because of lower turnover costs.”
    Those costs would include repairs, painting and cleaning.
    As a result, in the multifamily REIT sector, Goldfarb likes Essex Property Trust, with its large West Coast footprint. Equity Residential also benefits from that regional presence.
    He noted the rebounds of San Francisco and Seattle, driven by artificial intelligence and tech companies like Amazon issuing return to office mandates, have helped real estate.

    He’s neutral on the Sunbelt, which had been a hot pandemic play. Names like Camden Property Trust and Mid-America Apartment Communities had strong performances in the first quarter of this year, but could be hit hardest if there is a recession that leads to job losses.
    As for the overall multifamily market, after declines last year due to record levels of new supply, rents are now coming back, up 0.9% year over year in the first quarter, according to CBRE. That is thanks to the strongest positive net absorption, or the change in the number of occupied units, since 2000 and more than triple the pre-pandemic first quarter average.
    It marks the fourth consecutive quarter in which demand surpassed new construction completions, and that pushed the multifamily vacancy rate down to 4.8%, below its long term average of 5%. 
    “The first drop in vacant units in more than two years signals a crucial turning point in the multifamily sector,” said Kelli Carhart, leader of multifamily capital markets for CBRE. “This boost will lead to increased investment activity in 2025 as improving fundamentals continue to drive investor confidence capital deployment.” More

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    Candy giant Ferrero adds American twists to Nutella, Ferrero Rocher to fuel U.S. growth

    Ferrero announced a slate of new products, like Nutella Peanut and Ferrero Rocher chocolate squares, ahead of the annual Sweets and Snacks Expo.
    The European company has been investing in growing its U.S. sales for the last decade through an acquisition spree and introducing its iconic brands to consumers stateside.
    Ferrero has also been localizing its supply chain by investing in U.S. production facilities.

    Containers of Nutella hazelnut spread made by the Ferrero company is displayed on March 27, 2024 in San Anselmo, California. 
    Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    Ferrero North America is adding peanuts to its Nutella, turning its Ferrero Rocher spheres into squares and adding Dr Pepper flavor to Tic Tacs, all in the hopes of winning over more U.S. consumers.  
    The confectioner announced its slate of new products ahead of the annual Sweets and Snacks Expo, which kicks off Monday in Indianapolis. The company plans to display its largest-ever array of new products, like Butterfinger Marshmallow and Crunch White, at the trade event.

    Ferrero, which was founded in Italy but is now based in Luxembourg, entered North America nearly a half century ago, but the company only really started investing in the market over the last decade. It has recently brought some of its global brands over to the U.S., like Kinder, the maker of Kinder Buenos and Joy eggs.
    Ferrero has also expanded its U.S. business through a series of acquisitions: Fannie May, Brach’s owner Ferrera, Nestle’s U.S. candy business and Halo Top owner Wells Enterprises. The Nestle deal in particular brought Nerds, Butterfinger and Raisinets into Ferrero’s portfolio.
    Ferrero has grown to become the third-largest U.S. candy company, trailing only Hershey and Mars, according to Evercore ISI. But to close the gap, it still has a lot of ground to cover. Ferrero Rocher held 2% of the U.S. chocolate market share in the 12 weeks ended April 6, according to the bank, citing Circana data. That’s well below the double-digit share held by Hershey’s namesake candy and Reese’s, as well as Mars’ M&M’s.
    “Mr. Ferrero has been very clear: the U.S. is the biggest market in the world, it’s the most important market in the world. We will win in the U.S.,” Michael Lindsey, president and chief business officer of Ferrero North America, told CNBC, referring to the company’s executive chairman, Giovanni Ferrero.
    While publicly traded candy companies like Hershey and Mondelez have seen sales struggle in recent months, Ferrero’s U.S. business saw 3.4% dollar growth in the 52 weeks ended April 20, according to the company. Its privately held parent company saw an 8.9% increase in turnover — or revenue — in the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, Ferrero disclosed.

    Now the company is focusing on organic growth through innovation meant to appeal specifically to U.S. consumers.  
    “You do have to Americanize it at some point to get to that next level of love with the American consumer,” Lindsey said. “In a very simple way, our strategy is to take these global power brands, or the recently acquired U.S. power brands, and then introduce an American twist to them that the consumer here hasn’t seen before and hopefully will end up loving.”

    American-izing Ferrero Rocher and Nutella

    A timeline of Ferrero’s coming innovation
    Source: Ferrero

    Ferrero plans to bring American twists to many of its biggest products.
    Its iconic Ferrero Rocher candy will transform into squares with a chocolate shell, hazelnuts and a creamy filling. The product will come in at least five varieties – milk, dark, white, caramel and assorted – and will hit shelves in September.
    Ferrero Rocher isn’t the only brand getting a dramatic addition.
    For the first time in six decades, Nutella will introduce a new flavor: Nutella Peanut. The spread mixes the taste of classic Nutella’s cocoa and hazelnut with roasted peanuts. It will hit grocery shelves next spring.
    While the product will first launch in the U.S., Lindsey said that he’s already fielding calls from international colleagues excited about the new flavor.
    “I assume it will do extremely well, and then as soon as we’re able, we’ll start shipping some overseas,” he said.
    Given existing preferences for both peanuts and Nutella, Lindsey expects that Nutella Peanut will be a huge hit in Southeast Asia and the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia has the highest per capita Nutella consumption in the world, according to Lindsey.
    Ferrero is investing $75 million to support manufacturing of Nutella Peanut at its existing plant in Franklin Park, Illinois. The company is also expanding a production plant in Ontario, Canada, to support production of Ferrero Rocher chocolate squares and Nutella Biscuits.
    Ferrero is also sourcing hazelnuts from Oregon as it moves to localize its supply chain for the nut, a key ingredient for both Nutella and Ferrero Rocher.
    The company’s investments in its North American supply chain were in place before the Trump administration’s tariffs on dozens of countries, but the timing is fortuitous.
    “This has been in progress for multiple years and been part of our long-term strategy for Mr. Ferrero when he entered the U.S. market about 10 to 15 years ago. … Obviously recent events have made it even more important that we localize the supply chain,” Lindsey said, adding that the company has grown from 300 U.S. employees a decade ago to more than 5,000 today.
    And Ferrero’s U.S. investments aren’t limited to its supply chain. Lindsey said the company plans to start “going very large” on marketing its brands.
    “In fact, without spoiling it too much, you can expect to start seeing us in the biggest sporting events in the world, starting next year, in let’s say, February of ’26 and then over the summer of ’26 as well,” he said, hinting at marketing pushes during the Super Bowl and the World Cup.
    After all, what’s more American than football?
    Correction: Michael Lindsey is president and chief business officer of Ferrero North America. An earlier version misspelled his name.

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