Amazon’s PenPlace design earns key approval, heads into final stretch of reviews

PenPlace, the 3.2 million-square-foot second phase of Amazon.com Inc.’s second headquarters, has earned the key support of Arlington County staff as it heads into its final stretch of reviews. During the last Site Plan Review Committee meeting Thursday, Peter Schulz, a staffer with the Arlington planning division, said “staff has no major outstanding issues” with regard to PenPlace’s architecture and landscape design. "We would like to continue to work with the applicant on some minor things, including the security measures to make sure they’re in harmony with the wonderful design that they’ve proposed for the public space and for the architecture of the buildings," Schulz said after members of Amazon’s design teams, NBBJ and Scape, presented their final designs. Read More...

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Stocks fall on fears of aggressive Fed rate hikes

Wall Street sank on Thursday after U.S. inflation data came in hotter than expected, but stocks turned sharply lower following comments from Federal Reserve President James Bullard, who said the 40-year high in consumer prices made him “dramatically” more hawkish, raising fears the Fed will hike rates more aggressively.The Dow dropped a percent and a half, while the S&P fell 1.8% and the Nasdaq finished down 2.1%, the seventh time this year the index lost more than 2% in a single session.Riverfront Investment Group’s chief investment strategist Chris Konstantinos said despite Bullard’s remarks, he believes the Fed will opt to take things slow.”I think the Fed would still prefer to move in 25 basis point increments. They sort of have to walk this this tightrope, if you will, between making sure they’re not too far behind the curve as it relates to controlling inflation. But on the flip side, they also don’t want to appear like they’re panicking that they’re moving, you know, with a magnitude that’s too too high… So the Fed is trying to walk this tightrope. And I suspect in the coming days, we’re going to get more back and forth between some of the more hawkish Fed presidents and some of the more dovish.”Megacap growth stocks including Tesla, Nvidia and Microsoft gave back some gains made earlier in the week, each losing about 3%. But U.S. companies continued to report upbeat earnings.Walt Disney was a bright spot, as shares rose 3.35%, after the company beat revenue and profit expectations on strong Disney+ subscriber growth and higher attendance at U.S. theme parks. Shares of toy maker Mattel rose 7.65% and cereal maker Kellogg gained 3.11%, after both companies forecast full-year profits above market expectations.