Markets

SYDNEY—The hottest commodity in Australia’s biggest mining province comes with a driving license and a willingness to work 12-hour shifts under a baking desert sun. Western Australia, the world’s main source of iron ore and a significant producer of gold, is so short of truck drivers that some companies are pressing retired soldiers and furloughed airline pilots into service on mine sites, or offering gourmet meals and building Olympic-size swimming pools to attract more workers. Competition for skills is driving up wages, adding a new layer of costs and supporting metals prices. For miners unable to find enough workers, projects designed to meet the next wave of commodities demand are being delayed.

Jennifer Boskin and Kevin Boskin want to build two vacation homes on a property they recently purchased. The couple, who live in Baltimore, paid $50,000 for land in Garrett County, Md. The property is zoned for two units and they would like to build one house as a second home and another as a rental property.

Some financial-technology lenders are in the process of bankification, with both models seeming to be working for investors right now. Home-improvement lender GreenSky ’s agreed-upon sale to Goldman Sachs is the latest in a series of similar moves for nonbank lending companies. Several notable digital lending companies that began with some form of partnership, wholesale funding or marketplace model are in some stage of shifting into a banking model. LendingClub acquired Radius Bancorp and became a bank, and SoFi Technologies is seeking to become one. Square now has its own banking license that it can use to issue business loans.

In a risky race against time that ran for two decades, China Evergrande Group turned billions of dollars in borrowed money into the dream of homeownership for millions of Chinese citizens. It launched project after project in every Chinese province, selling apartments years before they were completed and scratching together enough cash to stay just ahead of massive interest bills.

Digital buy now, pay later services are surging in popularity. While they offer consumers appetizing convenience, these services also leave some with regrets. Companies such as Affirm and Klarna Bank AB enable shoppers to purchase products online, have them delivered as usual, then pay for their order in installments. Sometimes these services come with interest and sometimes they are interest free. This app-based version of layaway—making small payments for an item over time—has skyrocketed in usage among both consumers and retailers. Afterpay Ltd. , one of the most popular platforms, said sales among its U.S. merchant partners will increase by $8.2 billion this year thanks to payment plans.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. Luck may be running out for casinos operating in Macau. Officials who govern the Chinese territory on Tuesday set expectations for increased regulatory scrutiny of the gambling industry. Six casino licenses there, including Vegas-based operators such as Wynn Resorts, are set to expire in June 2022. Before the pandemic, in 2019, Macau supplied about 70% of revenue for Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands Corp. Wynn Resorts shares declined 11% Tuesday.

The organization that oversees London’s gold trading blocked metal mined in Kyrgyzstan from entering the city’s market, dealing a blow to the central Asian nation’s bullion-dependent economy. The London Bullion Market Association said Friday it had suspended Kyrgyzaltyn OJSC, Kyrgyzstan’s state-owned gold producer, from its list of acceptable refiners. The list sets standards in London’s gold market, one of the world’s biggest, and is regarded as an international benchmark. Traders and officials have said the move will likely restrict Kyrgyzaltyn from selling bars in other gold hubs including Switzerland and New York.

U.S. stocks fell and bond yields rose as new data on consumer sentiment was slightly below expectations, raising fresh questions about the pace of economic growth and the inflation outlook.  The S&P 500 dropped 40.76 points, or 0.9%, to 4432.99, pushing the index into the red for the week. The Nasdaq Composite fell 137.96 points, also losing 0.9%, to 15043.97 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 166.44 points, or 0.5%, to 34584.88.

It would seem that Airbnb hosts in college towns would earn a lot of money when the home team is hosting its biggest rival—say, a game between the University of Florida and Florida State, or the University of Michigan and Ohio State. But recent research found that for many Airbnb hosts those events are a blown opportunity to score big bucks. That’s because these hosts jack their prices up so high that their space goes unrented. And the researchers suggest the reason is what they call “affiliation bias”—in other words, the hosts just can’t stand the visiting team’s fans.

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