C4 Business The Boston Globe TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2019
25
THEBOSTONGLOBE
Indexof publicly traded companiesin MassachusettsTech companies powered a rally on Wall Street Monday
that gave the market its third straight gain. The surge fol-
lowed a US decision to give the Chinese telecom giant Hua-
wei another 90 days to buy equipment from American sup-
pliers. Chip makers like Qualcomm, Intel, and Micron rose.
The decision on Huawei appeared to put investors eager for
any signs of progress in the US-China trade war in a buying
mood. Buying went beyond tech, with stocks of communi-
cation services and health care companies and retailers
notching solid gains. Financial stocks also rose as bond
prices headed lower, sending yields higher. Energy stocks
climbed following a 2.4 percent increase in US crude oil
prices. ‘‘Today is an up day because we have some better
news on China,’’ said Kate Warne, at Edward Jones. Despite
recent gains, US stock indexes are on track to finish the
month with losses. The market has been volatile as inves-
tors parse conflicting signals on the economy and recession
risks. A key concern is the escalating trade conflict. Last
week, many stock indexes hit their lowest levels this year,
before a late rally suggested some calm was returning.
Markets
Stocks post a third straight gain
DOW JONES industrial average
NASDAQ Composite index
S&P 500 index
Globe 25 index
SOURCE:BloombergNewsTrump’s incessant jawboning for
lower rates and criticism of Powell
— on Monday, he decried “the
horrendous lack of vision by Jay
Powell and the Fed” — is the
president’s own insurance against a
recession hitting before the 2020
elections. While there is zero chance
the Fed lowers rates by a percentage
point “over a short period of time,”
as called for by Trump, the Fed is
truly worried about the fallout from
Trump’s trade war.
Investors put the odds at more
than 90 percent in favor of a
quarter-point move at the Fed’s next
meeting, on Sept. 17-18. That’s a
reduction of a half percentage point
this year that may not have ever
happened if Trump hadn’t gone
after the Fed.
Like I said, first-rate political
strategy. But there’s more.
At this stage in the 2020
campaign, Trump is no doubt
confident he can beat any of the
candidates leading the Democratic
pack. If the economy and financial
markets don’t go south.
In a survey released Monday by
the National Association of Business
Economists, 38 percent of respond-
ents said they expected a downturn
in 2020, down from 42 percent in
the group’s survey in February.
Also on Monday, Eric Rosengren,
president of the Federal Reserve
Bank of Boston and one of the
dissenters in last month’s rate vote,
told Bloomberg TV policy makers
have “plenty of things to be worried
about.” But he expects a resilient
American consumer will continue to
drive the economy forward.
All that is decent news for the
president, but he’s not taking anyuEDELMAN
ContinuedfromPageC 1chances. In a sign of the level of
concern, several senior White
House officials are considering a
temporary payroll tax cut as a way
to buttress the economy, The
Washington Post reported. And
Trump has recently begun talking
about a conspiracy to croak the
economy as a way to defeat him.
It’s not just Powell and the Fed
he’s implicating in this Plot Against
America. “He has said other
countries, including allies, are
working to hurt American economic
interests,” New York Times reporter
Maggie Haberman wrote over the
weekend. “He has accused the news
media of trying to create a recession.”
If the economy does sour beforethe election, it won’t be the
president’s fault. His campaign
rallies will be one long tirade
against colluding immigrants,
Muslims, socialists, gun haters, the
fake news media, and... the Fed!
Only he’ll be able to save us.
“You have no choice but to vote
for me because your 401(k),
everything is going to be down the
tubes. So whether you love me or
hate me, you’ve got to vote for me,”
he told a crowd in New Hampshire
last week.
“Show me a hero,” Fitzgerald
said, “and I’ll write you a tragedy.”You can reach me
at [email protected].Ifeconomysours,don’tblameTrump
rates both hit record highs last year
in downtown Boston, he said, and
the Ames has been performing well,
especially since joining Hilton’s Cu-
rio brand in 2016.
The Ames Hotel opened nine
years ago after a $40 million over-
haul of the Ames Building, a 188-
foot Romanesque tower that was the
tallest building in Boston when it
opened in 1889. At the time, it was
hailed as a stylish addition to down-
town’s sometimes-staid hotel scene.
Invesco pumped another $5 million
into upgrades.
Invesco did not respond to mes-
sages seeking comment on Monday,
nor did the hotel’s general manager.
Employees were told of the sale
last week. And while no closing date
has been confirmed, hotel rooms are
not available for booking on the
Ames website after mid-September.
A final deal would give Suffolk a
high-profile dorm in a prime loca-
tion. Its facilities are spread among
10 Downtown Crossing and Beacon
Hill buildings. It eventually wants to
house about half of its roughly 5,uAMES
Continued from Page Cfull-time undergraduate students,
up from the 30 percent it can house
today.
Suffolk has a growing population
of international students and, like
many of its peers, it wants high-
quality student housing to better
compete, both for foreign and US-
born undergraduates.
A hotel is ready-made for easy
conversion into dorm space, Nucci
said, and Suffolk hopes to have it
ready for students to move in for the
2020-2021 school year.
“It’s very exciting,” he said.
But any plan to turn the Ames in-
to a dorm will need to go through a
community review process and win
approval from the Boston Planning
& Development Agency, Nucci not-ed. The administration of Mayor
Martin J. Walsh has strongly encour-
aged colleges to add dormitory beds,
part of a push to shift students out of
traditional housing in city neighbor-
hoods and free up apartments in a
city with high demand for rentals.
A BPDA spokeswoman said it
hasn’t received a formal proposal
from Suffolk but looks forward to
hearing about Suffolk’s plans.
“Mayor Walsh’s Housing Boston
2030 [initiative] identifies the cre-
ation of student housing as one way
to address the city’s housing needs,”
the BPDA said in a statement.Tim Logan can be reached at
[email protected]. Follow him
on Twitter at @bytimlogan.College set
to acquire
hotel for a
new dorm
the state line in Tiverton, R.I., and
also operates one in Lincoln, R.I.
Plus, the Plainridge Park slots
parlor, isn’t far from Wareham, a
40-ish mile drive up Interstate 495.
Perhaps the most ambitious part
of this plan, though, involves
Beacon Hill. Notos will need the
Legislature’s permission for its
project, and lawmakers have not
been eager in the past to open up
the 2011 law that established the
state’s current casino market.
That law carved up the state into
three sections for resort casino
licenses: Greater Boston/Central
Massachusetts (Region A), Western
Massachusetts (Region B), and
Region C. Wynn Resorts opened
Encore Boston Harbor in Everett in
June, and MGM opened last year in
Springfield. Region C remains an
open question.
Plainridge Park, a harness-racing
track, won the fourth license set
aside for a smaller slots parlor, one
without table games.
The catch: A resort casino license
requires a $500 million investment,
more than Notos plans to spend. So
Notos will need the Legislature touCHESTO
Continued from Page Callow a Region C complex to
accommodate a slots-only license
instead, presumably scaling back
the mandatory threshold. (The
minimum capital investment for the
slots license that went to Plainridge?
$125 million.)
The Notos proposal comes as the
Massachusetts Gaming Commission
prepares to revive discussions about
the Region C license next month.
Notos has already provided
informational briefings to
commission members.
Notos faces competition for the
Region C slot.
Chicago casino mogul Neil
Bluhm is still pushing a venture for
the Brockton Fairgrounds. The
commission rejected the concept in
2016, but Bluhm has asked for
reconsideration. A spokesman for
Bluhm’s Brockton venture said the
developer looks forward to making
its case next month, and that
“Brockton and the rest of Region C”
have waited since 2011 for the
economic development and jobs
that have gone to Springfield and
Everett.
Chip Tuttle, chief operating
officer of Sterling Suffolk
Racecourse, says the Notos proposalwon’t change his group’s plans to
pursue legislation that would allow
the refurbishment of the Great
Barrington racetrack and continued
simulcasting in Suffolk County.
Tuttle says his team is generally
supportive of efforts to preserve
thoroughbred racing, and notes that
Suffolk Downs and the former
Rockingham Park track in New
Hampshire intentionally didn’t
overlap thoroughbred race dates for
about a decade, starting in the early
1990s.
The O’Connell family’s work has
left a legacy on the South Shore with
the Marina Bay community arising
in the 1980s, Granite Links opening
in the early 2000s, and restaurants
in Hingham and Hull opening more
recently. The construction
continues: Peter O’Connell, Tom’s
father, is developing what would be
Quincy’s tallest tower, a 15-story
apartment building going up in
Quincy Center. Whether that
family’s legacy can be extended to
the gambling industry remains to be
seen.Jon Chesto can be reached at
[email protected]. Follow him
on Twitter @jonchesto.Developertoproposecasino,trackforWareham
PAT GREENHOUSE/GLOBE STAFFPerhaps
themost
ambitious
partofthe
Notos
plan
involves
getting
theOK
from
Beacon
Hilllaw-
makers.
The Ames Hotel
opened nine
years ago after
a $40 million
overhaul of the
Ames Building,
a 188-foot
Romanesque
tower that was
the tallest
building in
Boston when it
opened in 1889.TOM BRENNER/NEW YORK TIMES/FILE 2017President
Trump on
Monday
decried “the
horrendous
lack of vision
by Jay Powell
and the Fed.”
Jerome Powell,
shown in this
2017 photo
with Trump,
was the
president’s
choice to chair
the Federal
Reserve.