Fed Chair Jerome Powell had previously signaled the central bank was on track to cut rates if data suggested that the labor market was slowing. Friday’s report provided a clear sign that payroll growth had downshifted meaningfully since the beginning of the year.
Dealmaking
The spate of corporate breakups has spurred a comeback in deal activity. Deal volumes are up 23% in the U.S. year over year. But not all companies are shying away from megamergers: The year’s biggest deal so far was Union Pacific’s $71.5 billion acquisition of fellow railroad Norfolk Southern.
BX Raise
Blackstone closed on $5.5 billion for its latest infrastructure secondaries fund, Strategic Partners Infrastructure IV L.P., and its related committed program vehicles. SP Infrastructure IV is the world’s largest dedicated infrastructure secondaries fund raised to-date.
San Fran Office
San Fransisco is still flooded with vacant office space, and many of its buildings are obsolete or in distress. The vacancy rate is 22.8%, down slightly from the record high it hit last year but still more than triple what it was in 2019.
CMBS Delinquency
Among hotel properties with commercial mortgage-backed securities debt, the delinquency rate was 6.59% in July — up slightly from the 6.17% posted within the sector in July 2024 but still lower than the 6.9% delinquency rate recorded among retail properties in July 2025 and 11.04% within office real estate that same month.
NYC Rent Stabilized
Sales for New York City’s rent-stabilized multifamily properties with 10 or more units have declined since 2019, when rent laws restricted many owners looking to raise rents on over one million rent-stabilized apartments. Many listings across the city are also staying on the market for weeks longer than what is considered typical, prompting owners to cut prices by 10% on average.
Margin Borrowing
Margin borrowing is at an all-time high as of July, and topped $1 trillion for the first time ever as of June.
Top 400 Taxes
The Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans paid 23.8% of their economic income in taxes from 2018 to 2020. Of those taxes, 37% come through corporate taxes, with the bulk of the rest from individual income and payroll taxes.
Ethereum Activity
Activity on Ethereum amounted to more than $1.2 trillion this year, compared with $960 billion during the same time frame last year. Most of the transactions involve tether and USD Coin, the two largest dollar-pegged stablecoins, as well as deposits and withdrawals to major exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase.
Mortgage Rates
The 30-year mortgage rate hit a low for the year last week at 6.58%.