Business

In the second quarter in Manhattan, Chinese entities accounted for half of the commercial real estate purchases with prices over $10 million. By comparison, in 2011 through 2014, total cross-border purchases from all over the world (not just from China) were in the mid-20% range.

“At a time when domestic investors have pulled back, foreign parties have ramped up their holdings in Manhattan,” according to Avison Young’s Second Quarter Manhattan Market Report.

Bitcoin and other virtual currencies have rallied this week as growing support for a controversial software update suggests that a long-feared network split might be averted, and the issue settled…at least for now.

“Traders are excited by the prospect of a resolution to the scaling debate, which is why the price has rallied,” Thomas Glucksmann, head of marketing at Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange Gatecoin, told Bloomberg.

Indeed, bitcoin is up 10% in early trade Tuesday, building on Monday's 20% climb:

While the landscape for hedge funds has been increasingly dreary in recent years, with increasingly fewer able to beat their benchmark, let alone the broader market in a time when alpha creation - for most - has disappeared, there is the occasional success story. One among them is the Pharo Macro Fund, whose manager Guillaume Fonkenell said he is returning profits to investors from his $5 billion macro fund after it beat rivals this year, on concerns it is getting too big.

While Goldman's overall results reported moments were generally solid, with the bank reporting Q2 revenue of $7.89 billion (exp. $7.52 billion) and net earnings of $1.83 billion, or EPS of $3.95, above the $3.39 expected, compared with $3.72 for Q2 of 2016 and $5.15 in Q1 2017, there was just one number everyone was focused on: the bank's most profitable segment, its FICC revenue, which however was painfully disappointing, at just $1.159 billion, down 40% Y/Y and roundly missing expectations of $1.47 billion, the bank's worst performance in this segment going back to Q4 2015.

• U.S. Republicans left scrambling after health bill sinks again (Reuters); Republicans Give Up on Health-Care Reform, Now Seek Straight Repeal (BBG)
• Trump Blames Democrats and a ‘Few Republicans’ for Health-Bill Wreck (BBG)
• House Republicans Set Out Plan to Rewrite Tax Code (WSJ)
• House GOP Budget Ignores Trump’s Cuts to Domestic Agencies (BBG)
• House Republicans unveil 2018 budget with tax reform instructions (Reuters)
• UK inflation unexpectedly falls and eases rate-hike fears (AP)