Editor's Note: Some linked articles may be behind subscription paywalls.
1. NYC Short-Term Rental Ban Having Unintended Effects
New York City's new regulations on short-term rentals aren't working out exactly as officials predicted, Business Insider reports. Rents continue to rise in the city, and so are hotel rates along with the number of medium-term rentals.
Hotel occupancy in the city hit 82% last year, and the average room price reached $301 a night, according to the article. The effects of the loss of short-term rentals is combined with the number of hotels that closed to house migrants and refugees.
"It's not surprising to me that you remove 20,000 short-term rentals, and all of a sudden, hotel rates are going up by 10%," said Jamie Lane, chief economist for AirDNA.
2. US Banks Pass Fed's Stress Test
All 31 of the biggest banks in the U.S. passed their annual stress test with the Federal Reserve, CNBC reports. The tests gauge whether the banks could withstand a major recession while maintaining more than their minimum required capital levels.
“This year’s results show that under our stress scenario, large banks would take nearly $685 billion in total hypothetical losses, yet still have considerably more capital than their minimum common equity requirements,” said Michael Barr, the Fed’s vice chair for supervision. “This is good news and underscores the usefulness of the extra capital that banks have built in recent years.”
3. Hotel Brands Eye India's Domestic Travel Demand
International hotel brands see development opportunities in India thanks to growing domestic travel demands, writes HNN contributor Chitra Balasubramaniam.
IHG Hotels & Resorts has 46 hotels with 7,800 rooms open in India, and the company plans to double those numbers in the next five years, said Sudeep Jain, managing director of South West Asia for IHG.
“India has significant long-term potential that requires patience and commitment. This is not a short-term endeavor but a sustained effort. We are here for the long haul,” Jain said.
4. US Weekly Jobless Claims Fall
The U.S. Department of Labor reported that initial jobless claims for the week ending June 22 dropped by 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 233,000, according to Reuters.
The jobless rate rose to 4% in May for the first time since January 2022, but the increase was generally not a cause for concern for the labor market, Reuters reports.
"Though job growth will slow, it will remain sufficient to limit a significant and broad-based increase in the unemployment rate," Ryan Sweet, chief economist at Oxford Economics, told Reuters.
5. Several Central Banks Hold Interest Rates Steady
The central banks of Sweden, Turkey and the Philippines all held their interest rates steady as each country handles ongoing inflation, the Wall Street Journal reports.
In Sweden, the Riksbank held the key policy rate at 3.75%, but there's the possibility of two to three cuts during the second half of the year as long as its outlook on inflation holds, the newspaper reports.
Turkey's central bank decided to keep the benchmark one-week repo rate at 50%, according to the article. The country has struggled with inflation, as even though the bank raised rates several times last year, annual inflation hit 75% in May.
In the Philippines, the central bank held the benchmark overnight reverse purchase rate at 6.5% and its benchmark lending rate at 7%, the Wall Street Journal reports.