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Italian fashion house Prada on Wednesday announced it will pay $425 million to buy the Fifth Avenue building thats home to its flagship boutique — making it the latest luxury retailer to double-down on the worlds greatest shopping street.

The deal reflects the dramatic rise in the fortunes of retail real estate even as the office and residential markets struggle.

It also comes amid  forecasts that online shopping would doom brick-and-mortar stores.

The board believes that the propertys location offers high strategic value being characterized by increasing scarcity and long-term potential, Prada said in a statement.

The purchase of 724 Fifth, where Prada has leased five floors in the 12-story building since 1997, follows recent word that Japans Geshary coffee brand bought nearby 560 Fifth Ave.

Geshary is expected to launch a multi-floor display of the coffee-making process, similar to one it has in Tokyo, after current tenant Oakleys lease is up next year.

The worlds most expensive stretch of retailers will also see luxury watchmaker Rolex develop an entirely new headquarters tower at 665 Fifth at East 52nd Street.

Meanwhile, Japanese confectioner Minamoto purchased a former TGI Fridays building at 604 Fifth Ave., and LVMH has development plans for its Louis Vuitton site at Fifth and East 57th Street.

The commitment by international brands acknowledges and reinforces that the city and Fifth Avenue have continued to maintain their place as the No. 1 shopping destination and avenue in the world, Cushman & Wakefield superbroker Joanne Podell said.

Retail specialist Andrew Goldberg, a vice-chairman at CBRE, said the phenomenon of big brands buying real estate, which we saw a lot of in the 1980s and 90s, is coming back.

Goldberg, who worked on the deal that first brought Prada to 724 Fifth in the 1990s, noted with a chuckle, When retailers buy a building where theyre tenants, it means they have no intention of leaving.

Leasing is on fire as well on the avenues prime stretch north of East 48th Street. Swarovski is coming to a former Gap site at 680 Fifth and Marc Jacobs is in talks for 645 Fifth, where an Armani A/X lease expires in 2024.

Last month, Cushman & Wakefield reaffirmed its No. 1 global ranking for Fifth Avenue as the worlds most expensive retail destination in real estate terms, with rents of $2,000 per square foot.

The Fifth Avenue phenomenon is matched on Madison Avenue north of East 57th Street, where Valentino took over the huge former Calvin Klein store and Giorgio Armani will soon open e a spectacular new flagship boutique.

New leases for Van Cleef & Arpels, Dolce & Gabbana, Peter Millar and others have left few available spaces, according to Garrick-Augs Joseph Aquino.The trend is also mirrored in Soho, where there are now nearly as many marquee brands as uptown. But some middle-market corridors, such as Midtown Third Avenue and Broadway on the Upper West Side, continue to struggle.

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Tesla (TSLA) soars on Trump making easier path for Tesla’s non-existent self-driving tech

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Tesla (TSLA) soars on Trump making easier path for Tesla's non-existent self-driving tech

Tesla (TSLA) is soaring in anticipation that Trump’s administration will make an easier path for Tesla’s self-driving tech, which still doesn’t work, to be approved federally.

Currently, self-driving technology is addressed at the state level, with each state having its own regulations for approving self-driving systems on its roads.

During a conference call following Tesla’s last earnings results, CEO Elon Musk, who has been financially backing the reelection of Donald Trump and “fully endorsed” him, hinted that he could work with the new federal government to get a federal self-driving approval process going.

Now, Bloomberg reports that Trump’s transition team is discussing making it a priority:

Members of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team have told advisers they plan to make a federal framework for fully self-driving vehicles one of the Transportation Department’s priorities, according to people familiar with the matter.

This news sent Tesla’s stock up 7%, or an increase of 470 billion in value.

That’s surprising because before now, the regulatory aspect of Tesla’s self-driving effort didn’t seem like the biggest hurdle – making the technology work still seems to be the biggest hurdle.

Tesla has been wrong about its self-driving timeline too many times to count, but the latest one is to release unsupervised self-driving in California and Texas in Q2 2025.

Ashok Elluswamy, the head of FSD at Tesla, stated that Tesla’s goal is to achieve over 600,000 miles between critical disengagement, which is based on NHTSA’s data of accidents between human-driven miles.

Tesla has not released any data about its self-driving effort, and therefore, the best data available is crowdsourced. That data currently shows about 241 miles between critical disengagement:

Tesla would need a 2,500x improvement in miles between disengagement to reach a safer-than-human level, which has been the goal before getting regulatory approval.

Electrek’s Take

That sounds like a much bigger hurdle than getting regulatory approval.

I actually agree with the Trump administration that it makes more sense to have a federal framework for approving self-driving systems than at the state level.

But I don’t see how it will help Tesla since there’s no clear path to Tesla achieving a level safer than human with their current approach any time soon.

At the current pace, the 2,500x improvement would take 10 years and we have yet to see a significant acceleration to the pace of improvement.

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Liberty Energy stock jumps after Trump picks CEO Chris Wright as energy secretary

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Liberty Energy stock jumps after Trump picks CEO Chris Wright as energy secretary

Liberty Oilfield Services CEO Chris Wright at Liberty January 17, 2018.

Andy Cross | Denver Post | Getty Images

Shares of Liberty Energy rose on Monday after President-elect Donald Trump picked CEO Chris Wright as energy secretary.

Liberty Energy is an oilfield services company headquartered in Denver, Colorado with a market capitalization of $2.7 billion.

The shares were up 5% in premarket trading Monday.

Wright will step down as CEO and chairman of the board at Liberty upon his confirmation as energy secretary, according to a company statement Monday. Liberty plans to appoint Ron Gusek to succeed Wright as CEO, and William Kimble as chairman.

Wright also serves as board member at Oklo, a nuclear startup backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that is developing micro reactors. Oklo’s stock surged nearly 10% in premarket trading.

Wright will also serve as a board member of the president-elect’s Council on National Energy. The CEO has denied that climate change is a global crisis that requires a transition away from fossil fuels.

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Trump wants to increase fossil fuel production in the U.S., though analysts and industry heavyweights such as Exxon CEO Darren Woods have said oil and natural gas output in the U.S. will not change in response to the election.

The U.S. has been the biggest crude oil producer in the world since 2018, outpacing Russia and Saudi Arabia.

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Energy bills to rise again from January but spring falls to come, research firm Cornwall Insight forecasts

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Energy bills to rise again from January but spring falls to come, research firm Cornwall Insight forecasts

Energy bills are to rise again next year, according to a respected forecaster.

Costs from January to March are projected to rise another 1% to £1,736 a year for the average user, according to research firm Cornwall Insight.

The energy price cap, which sets a limit on how much companies can charge per unit of electricity, is also expected to rise, costing typical households an extra £19 a year.

It’s a further increase after energy costs rose 10% from October.

After the latest hike, there were hopes of a fall in the new year, but volatile wholesale gas and electricity markets are still above historic average costs.

Money blog: Supermarket-own champagne beats expensive brands in taste test

Prices have gone up due to supply concerns arising from Russia‘s war in Ukraine, and maintenance of Norwegian gas infrastructure.

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But spring is expected to herald a reduction as is October 2025, Cornwall Insight said.

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‘Energy prices make me depressed’, pensioner Roy Roots said in August

Every three months energy regulator Ofgem revises the cap based on wholesale costs.

The official January price cap announcement will be made on Friday.

It comes as millions of pensioners lost their automatic winter fuel allowance payment after the government means-tested the benefit.

Meanwhile, Cornwall Insight’s principal consultant Dr Craig Lowrey warned “millions” of households won’t heat their homes to “recommended temperatures, risking serious health consequences” with bills on the rise.

“With it being widely accepted that high prices are here to stay, we need to see action,” he said, suggesting options like cheaper rates for low-income homes, benefit restructuring, or other targeted support for the vulnerable “must be seriously considered”.

The energy price cap system is being reviewed by Ofgem with possible changes to the standing charge coming over the next year.

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The long-lasting solution to high energy bills is the transition to UK-produced renewable power, the firm said.

“While there will be upfront costs, this shift is essential to building a sustainable and secure energy system for the future.”

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