Latest news with #ApolloGlobalManagement
Travel Weekly
42 minutes ago
- Business
- Travel Weekly
Venetian Las Vegas puts hidden spaces to work
For years, the Venetian Resort Las Vegas had been hiding a secret behind the windows of the top floor of one of its two towers. That entire floor, comprising nearly 80,000 square feet atop the Venetian South Tower, had remained a concrete shell since 2004, part of nearly 500,000 square feet of prime Strip real estate that was sitting empty. Some areas had remained untouched since the resort opened just over 25 years ago. That all changed after Las Vegas Sands sold the property to Apollo Global Management and VICI Properties for $6.25 billion in early 2022, with the Venetian unveiling a multiyear, $1.5 billion reinvestment project soon after. Patrick Nichols, who joined the Venetian as CEO in August 2022, helped spearhead efforts to finally put the property's vacant space to use. Patrick Nichols "We benefited from almost half a million square feet of 'gray space' with concrete floors, stud walls, all ready to go," Nichols said. The empty space at the top of the Venetian South Tower has been transformed into "spectacular, penthouse-caliber suites" that are group-friendly, said Nichols. "These three- and four-bedroom suites are great to book for a birthday party, bachelor party," he said. "And if someone accidentally sprays a bottle of champagne on the ceiling, it's not the end of the world. We heard from our customers that they wanted a spot for celebrations." One of the new suites added to the top of the Venetian South Tower. Photo Credit: Venetian Resort Las Vegas The expansion added 78 suites to the property, bringing the resort's total accommodations count to 7,167. Other gray spaces were transformed into part of the resort's dining program. The culinary expansion has resulted in what Nichols claims is the largest restaurant collection of any similar resort-gaming complex in Las Vegas, with more than 40 dining establishments now operating with more in the pipeline. "Food and beverage has become more and more important every year," Nichols said. "People don't just plan their trips around where to stay but also where to eat." Many of the new culinary additions represent extensions of established brands. These include an outpost of Gjelina, a Venice Beach staple with locations in California and New York, and HaSalon, a Mediterranean concept from Israeli celebrity chef Eyal Shani that has a New York flagship. The bar and dining area at Gjelina Las Vegas. Photo Credit: Venetian Resort Las Vegas The centerpiece of the Venetian's culinary expansion, however, is its new Via Via food hall, which Nichols describes as "a collection of great quick-service concepts from around the country." Via Via is home to spinoffs of venues like Scarr's Pizza and Ivan Ramen from New York, Molly's Rise and Shine from New Orleans and B.S. Taqueria from Los Angeles, among other cult favorites. Also among the property's more recent newcomers is Nomikai, a counter-service operation specializing in Tokyo-inspired handrolls, which Nichols said is especially "great for people at conventions grabbing a bite between meetings." Still to come this fall are two high-profile additions: Michelin-starred Korean barbecue joint Cote and Bazaar Meat, a Spanish steakhouse from Jose Andres that previously operated at the Sahara Las Vegas. The property has also added entertainment venues, including Voltaire, a 1,000-seat theater featuring cabaret-style seating where guests can see A-list performers like Kylie Minogue and Christina Aguilera in an intimate, art deco setting. Why did the space sit empty? Why hadn't the property's previous ownership opted to develop these unfinished areas? Nichols said it was a classic case of decision paralysis. "The response from them was, there were just too many options," Nichols said. "And we ran into the same thing -- lots of options, but we made some decisions." The reinvestment project wasn't limited to filling empty spaces. It also encompassed comprehensive renovations of existing areas, with the Venetian South Tower's 1,000 suites completing a refresh at the end of last year. The North Tower's 3,000 suites are currently under renovation and are expected to be completed by year's end. "The rooms keep the Italian spirit and the Italian architecture -- the crown moldings, the ornate details -- but with a more contemporary flair when it comes to the furnishings and décor," Nichols said. A newly renovated suite in the Venetian South Tower. Photo Credit: Venetian Resort Las Vegas Additionally, the property's convention center, which Nichols said typically serves about a third of the resort's visitors, received its first major redesign. The overhaul included new digital technology and lighting systems throughout the meetings spaces. On the gaming side, the renovation included the addition of the Yahoo Sportsbook as well as a refresh of the main casino floor. The comprehensive approach reflects Nichols' vision for creating an all-encompassing destination that keeps guests on the property longer during their Vegas visits. "We're in a battle for guest time," he said. "People come for two days, three days, and the goal is to build a very sticky mousetrap, where there's no reason to leave -- you can get everything you need at the Venetian."
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Kerry's notebook: Larry Fink wants your 401(k), investors are squeamish, what's Social Security hiding?
Every week or so, I bank some personal finance nuggets that don't make it into my Yahoo Finance columns. So now — and in weeks to come — I'll be clearing out my notebook. Here we go: Private equity comes to your 401(k)? BlackRock (BLK) announced this week that it's launching a target-date fund that will consist of private credit, private equity, and other investments, aiming to increase the annual return an extra 0.5% — and roughly 15% more money in your 401(k) over a 40-year lifecycle of a target date solution. The fund will be offered by Great Gray Trust, which offers retirement investment options and manages over $210 billion in assets. Empower, the second-largest retirement services provider in the US, has aligned with top-tier private investment fund managers and custodians, including Apollo Global Management (APO), Yahoo Finance's owner, and Goldman Sachs (GS). BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink proposed this idea a few months ago. Instead of a traditional 60/40 split between stocks and bonds, he wants everyday investors to branch out and diversify into private market assets. 'The future standard portfolio may look more like 50/30/20 — stocks, bonds, and private assets like real estate, infrastructure, and private credit,' Fink wrote in his annual letter to clients in April. Sounds good on the surface, but there's a big red flag in all this: more risk. That's a big concern for me and many experts I spoke with this week. There are trade-offs. These investments are riskier than the run-of-the-mill index funds most target-date retirement funds hold, have higher fees, and are less liquid. That makes it a scramble to pull funds out if the markets drop, so a long investment horizon is critical. The US Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of the Investor Advocate announced this week that it will look into the use of private equity and other alternative investments in retirement accounts. Shuttering the blinds. Social Security has gone dark on reporting its processing times for benefits and help on its website. The SSA took down six webpages that contained a collection of performance statistics about live phone and claims data around June 6, according to a memo written by researchers with the Strategic Organizing Center, a nonprofit labor alliance, provided to Yahoo Finance. For 10 days, the page was offline. If you went to the site, it read: 'Under Maintenance. This section is currently being improved. Sorry for the inconvenience.' The page remained offline until the SSA put up an altered page on June 16th. Most previous statistics and charts were deleted, and all data was consolidated into a single page with three sections. That new page offers a, shall we say, streamlined view of the agency's customer service performance. I will boil this down for you. The main message for seniors is — don't come see us. 'Very few services require you to visit a field office,' according to the website. 'We encourage you to go online to reduce your wait time and avoid a trip to the office.' Well, that's easier said than done for older Americans who don't have access to internet services or lack computer skills. A note on the site says that the average time to wait for a field office appointment after contacting the agency is 34 days. Phone help can require a three-hour wait time or more. But hold on. Wait time to access online services — 0 minutes is shown at the top of the page. Also: The page does not provide the Social Security 800 number. Not a bad way to discourage callers. In April, as I wrote, the agency faced backlash about limiting customer service for millions of seniors and backed off its plan to cut phone service. Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, told me this is the latest move Commissioner Frank Bisignano has made to pull back data previously available to the public. She added that SSA also pulled videos of operational meetings, data on staff losses this year, and even most of the organization chart (which now only names Bisignano). Read more: When will I get my Social Security check? Payment schedule for 2025. Many Americans need more personal help figuring out Social Security questions, not less. The reality is that most Americans are clueless about basic concepts of how Social Security and other retirement topics work, according to a recent report from the TIAA Institute and the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center at the George Washington University School of Business. Curious about your retirement know-how? Take the abbreviated quiz below. This is not a Jeopardy question. Nearly half of workers who estimate how much they need to have saved for retirement are just guessing, according to a new report by the nonprofit Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. A large portion of workers in each generation imagine they will need to save a cool million or more. Possibly, they're on target. But hello. Stop dart tossing and at least check out calculators on sites such as AARP, Bogleheads, Fidelity, or Vanguard to get a better handle on this calculation. Also troubling, according to the Transamerica report, more than 6 in 10 workers admit they do not know as much as they should about investing for retirement. Lack of retirement literacy is a reality for most Americans, as I mentioned above. Experts, me included, surmise that it's not so much that people are stupid as that they just haven't or don't want to think about how they would like their retirement years to play out — what types of things they will want and need to spend their money on so they can enjoy life. By subscribing, you are agreeing to Yahoo's Terms and Privacy Policy Feeling squeamish? Nearly half of Americans are too nervous to invest right now, up from 4 in 10 in the first quarter of this year. They are worried about their retirement savings more than they have in the last six years, according to a study out this week from Allianz Life that was fielded in May. That's the highest since 2019.'In general, people feel the pain of losing money more than they feel joy in gaining money,' Kelly LaVigne, vice president of Consumer Insights at Allianz Life, told me. 'For people who are still many years away from retirement, staying the course is the best option,' LaVigne said. 'But recent market volatility highlights the need to incorporate risk management into a retirement strategy.' Precisely what I wrote about in this column about how to protect your money. Everyday folks, especially those approaching retirement, are unnerved by all the drama that has gone down so far this year. There is a feeling that we are always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Lindsay Theodore, a senior manager and certified financial planner at T. Rowe Price, told me her best advice in these times: Ride out those uneasy feelings by staying patiently invested in a diversified and age-appropriate mix of stocks, bonds, and cash. Read more: How to start investing: A 6-step guide All you target-date fund investors can take a breath. Kerry Hannon is a Senior Columnist at Yahoo Finance. She is a career and retirement strategist and the author of 14 books, including the forthcoming "Retirement Bites: A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future," "In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in the New World of Work," and "Never Too Old to Get Rich." Follow her on Bluesky. Sign up for the Mind Your Money newsletter
Daily Mail
10 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Trump FINALLY gets a question he respects as president grins from ear-to-ear after big week on Wall Street
Donald Trump gushed over a reporter's question about whether he 'outsmarted' the financial markets with his industry-shaking tariffs. The president grinned from ear-to-ear as a reporter asked him for his reaction to Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Sløk saying Trump may have 'outsmarted everyone' with his tariffs. 'Mr. President, a leading global economist just did a one-eighty and says your tariff plan, you may have outsmarted everybody with it. What is your message?' the reporter asked. Trump smiled as he responded: 'I love this. I love this question. This is the favorite. This is the best question I've ever been asked because I've been going through abuse for years on this. 'Because, as you know, we're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars, no inflation whatsoever.' The reporter added in a follow-up question for Trump's 'message to critics who think your tariff plan caused a recession?' 'I think they should go back to business school,' Trump responded. 'It's so obvious. It's so obvious. I mean, we're taking in billions and billions of dollars from China and a lot of other countries.' It came as Wall Street continued its recent rally this week, with the S&P500 and Nasdaq hitting all-time closing highs on Friday. In Sløk's report that Trump appeared to enjoy, the economist speculated that Trump would keep tariffs below his most aggressive rates to ease market uncertainty while using them as leverage to get better trade deals. 'Maybe the strategy is to maintain 30% tariffs on China and 10% tariffs on all other countries and then give all countries 12 months to lower nontariff barriers and open up their economies to trade,' he wrote. The report came as Trump's 90-day pause on 'reciprocal tariffs' is set to come to an end early next month. Sløk said that Trump should consider extending the deadline to a whole year, which he said would give the global markets time to adjust to a 'new world with permanently higher tariffs.' 'This would seem like a victory for the world and yet would produce $400 billion of annual revenue for US taxpayers,' he said. 'Trade partners will be happy with only 10% tariffs and U.S. tax revenue will go up. 'Maybe the administration has outsmarted all of us.' Trump shocked the global markets in April as he introduced a raft of 'Liberation Day' tariffs, but the gamble may have paid off as markets soared in recent weeks and the US signed a number of trade deals with foreign nations The soaring stock market numbers came as trade deal hopes fueled investor risk appetite and economic data helped solidify expectations for rate cuts from the U.S. Federal Reserve. The rise came even after Trump terminated trade negotiations with Canada in response to its digital tax on technology companies. 'This market's been pretty resilient,' said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana. 'Investors are riding momentum and looking for breakouts.' 'They don't want to get caught on the wrong side of this thing,' Carlson added. 'Many investors already have missed out. And now you have the S&P flirting with an all-time high.' While tariffs have yet to affect price growth, inflation continues to hover above the Fed's 2% annual inflation target. A separate report from the University of Michigan confirmed consumer sentiment has improved this month, but remains well below December's post-election bounce. Financial markets have priced in a 72% likelihood that the Fed will implement its first rate cut of the year in September, with a smaller, 21% probability of a rate cut coming as soon as July, according to CME's FedWatch tool. Washington and Beijing reached an agreement to expedite rare-earth shipments to the U.S., a White House official said, well ahead of the July 9 expiration of the 90-day postponement of U.S. President Donald Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs. Additionally, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration's trade deals with 18 of the main U.S. trading partners could be done by the September 1 Labor Day holiday.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Is Trump a genius? Top economist and tariff skeptic admits president may have outsmarted us all on the economy
Did President Donald Trump outfox the world with his tariff plan? Maybe, according to Torsten Sløk, the chief economist at Apollo Global Management. On Saturday, Sløk published a blog post titled "Has Trump Outsmarted Everyone On Tariffs?" In it, he explains a possible scenario in which Trump keeps tariffs below his highest threatened rates just long enough to ease uncertainty and avoid the economic pains that would come with massive tariffs. 'Maybe the strategy is to maintain 30% tariffs on China and 10% tariffs on all other countries and then give all countries 12 months to lower nontariff barriers and open up their economies to trade,' he wrote. The post comes just before a 90-day pause on Trump's "reciprocal tariffs" — which triggered a huge stock selloff in April — ends in early July, Fortune reports. The pause was meant to provide the U.S. and its trade partners time to negotiate deals, though few actually materialized, at least publicly. That said, the Trump administration has been saying for weeks that they are close to reaching deals with several unnamed trade partners. Sløk theorized that by extending that deadline by another year, other countries and U.S. businesses would have more time to adjust to a "new world with permanently higher tariffs," and would ease the immediate uncertainty rocking the markets. 'This would seem like a victory for the world and yet would produce $400 billion of annual revenue for U.S. taxpayers,' he wrote. 'Trade partners will be happy with only 10% tariffs and U.S. tax revenue will go up. Maybe the administration has outsmarted all of us.' Sløk previously was a critic of Trump's tariff plan, and it does not appear that his position will change if the president continues his erratic and aggressive tariff program. But he has identified what he believes would be a way to come out on top — so long as the president is willing to play a longer game. Trump may or may not be willing to do that. He seems to have responded negatively to the TACO nickname he's been given by Wall Street — standing for Trump Always Chickens Out — and as a result may refuse to back off any of his proposed policies, even if it makes more sense to do so. Sløk warned in April that a U.S. and China trade war would cripple American small businesses, and advised that providing some sense of stability would give the Federal Reserve a better view on inflation. As it stands now everyone from heads of state to small business owners are in a wait-and-see pattern, unsure of how to proceed in the choppy economic waters Trump has created. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Economic Times
a day ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Meta seeks $29 billion from private capital firms for AI data centres: Financial Times
Meta Platforms is seeking to raise $29 billion from private capital firms to build artificial intelligence data centres in the U.S., the Financial Times reported on Friday. The Facebook-parent has advanced discussions with private credit investors including Apollo Global Management, KKR , Brookfield , Carlyle and PIMCO, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Meta is looking to raise $3 billion in equity and $26 billion in debt, the report said, adding that the company is debating how to structure the debt raising and may also seek to raise more capital. Such a fundraising comes at a time when Meta has doubled down its commitment to artificial intelligence, including a $14.8 billion investment in startup Scale AI. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had said in January the company would spend as much as $65 billion this year to expand its AI infrastructure, seeking to strengthen its position against competitors OpenAI and Google in the race to lead the AI technology landscape. Meta and Carlyle declined to comment, while Apollo Global, KKR, Brookfield and PIMCO did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Meta was working with its advisers at Morgan Stanley to arrange the financing, and it was considering ways that could make the debt more easily tradeable once it was issued, the FT report said. Major tech companies are investing heavily to secure the vast computing power needed to run AI models, fueling demand for specialized data centres that link thousands of chips into high-performance clusters. Microsoft has planned a capital expenditure of $80 billion in fiscal 2025, with most of it aimed at expanding data centres to ease capacity bottlenecks for AI services. Bloomberg News reported in February that Apollo Global Management is in talks to lead a roughly $35 billion financing package for Meta to help develop data centres in the United States.
