Image Source: DepositPhotos
 

Tying up yesterday’s news with a nice little bow, North Korean Leader, Kim Jong-un, proudly took ownership of his recent ICBM launch as his broadcasting network declared the test

 a “striking demonstration of great military muscle”.Kim added that it was a “miraculous” and “priceless” victory for the Korean people

according to The Guardian. 

North Korea proudly shared a video with the attentive world of Kim Jong-un walking out of his missile hangar doors with his two commanders on either side wearing a leather jacket and classic “spy” glasses. He is then seen synchronizing his watch in preparation for the launch of his intercontinental ballistic missile. The video is 1:27 seconds long and looks like a high school kid’s attempt to mimic a cheesy Hollywood spy movie trailer.

My gut reaction was to laugh at the absurdity, but I’m reminded that the people of North Korea have extremely limited access to technology. This piece of propaganda will likely do exactly what Kim Jong-un intended: instill great fear and reverence in the eyes of the people subject to his power.  

More Non-REIT News

Meanwhile, President Biden announced yesterday in Brussels that the world (America included) is about to experience “real” food shortages due to new Russian sanctions imposed by NATO:
 

“We did talk about food shortages. And it’s going to be real. The price of these sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia, it’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well”.

Come again? 

I understand that we need to make Russia feel the consequences of their actions, but making the world pay for Russia’s crimes is a bit much. We may prevent Russia from escaping without repercussions but risking a food shortage around the world is an exceptionally large, calculated risk. Thankfully, much more qualified individuals than myself are making these decisions. I just hope they are taking into account those who are barely coping with gas prices right now.  

According to Yahoo Finance:
 

“U.S. equity futures advanced on Friday as investors evaluated economic risks from Federal Reserve monetary-policy tightening and Russia’s war in Ukraine.”

And on an even happier note later in the article:
 

“Contracts on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 signaled U.S. stocks may hold a second weekly gain as a Bank of America Corp. buy-signal indicator flashed green for the first time since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, potentially signaling further upside for global equities in the weeks ahead.”

It will be interesting to see what happens after Biden’s newly announced sanctions begin taking place against Russia.

The World According to REITs

As reported in the Daily REITBeat this morning, there are not many significant changes to catalog aside from the following three companies:

• Orion Office REIT Inc. (ONL) just finished earnings and announced a 4Q Core FFO of $.47/share, seeing 2022 Core FFO guidance of $1.66-$1.74/share. I will be working on an article today on ONL for iREIT on Alpha members.
• Farmland Partners Inc. (FPI) purchased a 439-acre farm located in Colfax County, NE for approximately $2.6 million noting that the corn and soybean farm includes 425 tillable acres. 350 of these acres are pivot irrigated and the property is being rented back to the seller on a one-year lease with a gross capitalization rate of 5.2%. I plan to interview FOI’s CEO next week for iREIT members.
• Essex Property Trust, Inc. (ESS) announced the release of its 2021 Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures report, citing that the company expands its reporting and transparency with respect to environmental initiatives. This is done by incorporating the TCFD framework into its ongoing CSR strategy, further aligning with other reporting standards from the Global Reporting Index, Sustainable Accounting Standards Board, and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Not a lot to report today on REITs, but get ready! I have a feeling we are going to be seeing a lot of announcements in the near future.