Elaine Chen

After years of real estate musical chairs, Ford Motor Company has officially opened its new global headquarters in what is one of the largest office, research and design buildings in the country. At 2.1 million square feet, the building marks the Dearborn-based automaker’s first new headquarters since the post-World War II era and helps bring Ford into the 21st Century with contemporary workspaces, large swaths of natural light, courtyards, common working areas, green space and other amenities. With stutter-stepping architecture across four stories, the new Ford World Headquarters — as it’s officially known — is a stark departure from the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)-designed Henry Ford II World Center, commonly known as the Glass House, which has 12 stories and an all-glass façade about three miles away from the new building, which has a capacity for about 4,500 to 5,000 employees, or double the previous HQ. It's part of a longtime effort to consolidate employees into a more centralized area, creating a campus-like feel for the automaker, whose portfolio as of about a decade ago was 71 buildings totaling about 13.1 million square feet in and around Dearborn, an RFP at the time said. Contractors include Barton Malow, Snøhetta, IBI Group, Ghafari Associates and Arup. More here in Crain's Detroit Business (story photos by Quinn Banks) https://lnkd.in/e_Qg38AX

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The Federal Reserve is currently in a fascinating predicament, grappling with when to resume lowering interest rates. After pausing earlier this year due to inflation fears spurred by President Trump's tariffs, officials are now divided into (approximately) three camps. https://lnkd.in/e5GQvpgq A cautious center isn't opposed to resuming cuts per se but wants to see more inflation and labor market data before making a move. They believe it's too soon to cut with the inflation outlook still unsettled, even if tariffs haven't had the dire impact many expected. San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly pointed out that businesses are finding resourceful ways to absorb or work around higher costs, which could lead to a "more muted impact of tariffs than we thought." This group of cautious centrists faces opposing minorities. On one side are two Fed governors arguing for immediate cuts. Fed governor Chris Waller, who has privately indicated he'll dissent against Wednesday's decision to hold rates steady, contends that the headline unemployment rate masks underlying weakness in private-sector hiring and waiting risks damaging the labor market. "If you're talking about [a cut in] September, what are you waiting for?" he asked. Conversely, a third group is wary of cutting at all if the economy looks fine, fearing that price pressures from tariffs could still build. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic worries that a "constant drumbeat" of inflation concerns could shift how Americans perceive costs, making temporary tariff effects more enduring. This internal debate is happening amidst unprecedented political pressure from President Trump. Ultimately, the Fed is weighing the risks: cutting too soon and potentially reigniting inflation, or waiting too long and risking damage to the labor market. As former Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan put it, being "a meeting or two late" is manageable, but "you want to avoid mistakes where you do something where it might take a year or two to then rectify the situation." What are your thoughts? Should the Fed cut rates now, or wait for more data? Let me know in the comments!

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From my Taking Stock column last week: An index of three-month implied correlations from Cboe, the Chicago-based exchange, suggests that the extent of stocks moving up and down in unison is hovering near record lows. As correlations fall, it typically becomes easier for active fund managers to outperform the broader market when the gap between the winners and losers is wide, and if stocks are moving up and down together much less than usual. That said, active funds are struggling, which challenges the assumption that stock pickers will do better soon. In 2024, just 28% of actively managed mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that compare themselves to the S&P 500 managed to outperform it, according to Morningstar Direct. That’s down from 32% in 2023.

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#NEW in ADWEEK: The Federal Trade Commission has approved Omnicom’s $13.5B acquisition of Interpublic Group (IPG) Group—but with conditions. A consent decree bars Omnicom from steering client ad dollars away from media publishers based on political or ideological viewpoints, unless explicitly directed by the advertiser. The move follows months of scrutiny and aligns with broader political pressure around advertiser “boycotts” of platforms like X. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gjy-rWCy #marketing #advertising #mergers #acquisitions

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Since First Brands Group filed for bankruptcy with over $10 billion of liabilities, the market has been focused on blows to its broadly syndicated investors and trade finance providers. But the company benefited from another set of lenders that are now asking to be paid back: Private credit. These firms gave First Brands its last infusion of cash before its collapse, an unraveling that capped weeks of investor concern about the company’s use of opaque, off-balance-sheet financing. Latest w/ edits from Isabella Farr https://lnkd.in/ewF4sK8d

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🚨 FTC Seeks More Info on Omnicom, Interpublic Deal  Companies received new requests for information from Washington, signaling the agency is reviewing whether the transaction could be anti-competitive under U.S. law. https://lnkd.in/eKCGt4rq

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Earlier this morning, The Wall Street Journal reported exclusively that Apollo is buying real-estate firm Bridge Investment Group for $1.5 billion. The deal will nearly double Apollo’s real-estate assets under management, pushing them above $110 billion. It’s the latest “tuck-in” deal for Apollo, helping the firm get bigger in an area it hasn’t historically dominated. CEO Marc Rowan has said Apollo will do modest M&A to help it reach its goal of $1.5 trillion in total AUM by 2029. In classic Apollo fashion, the firm is snapping up publicly traded Bridge at a time when real estate values—and the firm’s stock—have been under pressure due to higher interest rates. Bridge manages $50 billion in assets and specializes in smaller real-estate debt transactions as well as housing and logistics. It has more than 300 investment professionals and a big operations and construction business. The deal is the latest example of a midsize firm selling to a bigger firm to get access to money flowing in from insurance companies and individuals. https://lnkd.in/exvwhPPX

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Column: Labor’s non-compete clause ban represents significant, pragmatic reform that will help drive up the wages of low to middle-income earners while overhauling provisions that don’t appear to pass the proverbial pub test. https://lnkd.in/gV8KwPcB

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