Friday’s business headlines

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Here’s a look at Friday’s business headlines.

AMC

AMC will reopen Aug. 20 with a celebration of 100 years in business and charge 1920 price of 15 cents a ticket.

The cinema chain will reopen after five months of pandemic lockdown and aims to be ready for Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” by September.

JC Penney

Two of JC Penney’s largest landlords have emerged as the leading contenders to acquire the department-store chain’s retail business out of bankruptcy, according to people familiar with the matter.

Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, the biggest mall owner in the U.S. by numbers of malls, and Brookfield Property Partners, another big shopping center owner, have joined together and are in advanced talks to purchase Penney’s retail operations, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Homes

Borrowers who rushed in droves to capitalize on low mortgage rates are in for a new surprise.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises that back millions of mortgages, are adding a new half-percent fee on all mortgage refinance transactions by Sept. 1.

The Mortgage Bankers Association says the fee will cost the average consumer $1,400.

Farm damage

Farmers across a wide swath of Iowa, Indiana and Illinois are dealing with the heartbreaking aftermath of a rare wind storm that turned what was looking like a record corn crop into deep losses for many.

Before the storm hit, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had been expecting a record national corn crop this year of 15.3 billion bushels harvested from about 84 million acres. Iowa was to provide about 18% of that production. Iowa’s crop was valued at about $9.81 billion in 2019.