Weekly Market Report: March 27, 2025

Nicole Buntgen, Contributing Writer

Oto, a high-end cocktail bar with an optimal, hi-fidelity sound experience, plans to open in October at Aksarben Village. Oto will be located in a 1,500 sq. ft. space on the ground floor of the HDR headquarters building adjacent to the lobby.

La Traga-Zona has opened next to the Mexitli restaurant in the Keeline Building at 1622 Harney Street. The locally owned café and bar specializes in sweet and savory crepes. Signature offerings include the Banana & Nutella Crepe, topped with whipped cream and chocolate syrup, and the Strawberry & Nutella Crepe. The menu also includes ice cream waffles, grilled ham & cheese sandwiches, milkshakes and alcoholic beverages.

SET The Bar, a sports bar dedicated to showcasing and celebrating women’s sports, has opened in Omaha. It’s only the eighth women’s sports-focused establishment in the United States and the first in Nebraska. SET The Bar is located in the Benson business district at 6121 Maple Street.

A local food truck proprietor plans to open a brick-and-mortar location in Bennington. Johnny Rico’s Brooklyn Pizza filed a building permit to tenant-finish a bay in the retail building at 8001 North 157th Street. Current tenants in that building include Bennington Urgent Care, Hay Jay Café & Coffee and Rock Valley Physical Therapy.

Rebel Rise Bakery, a gluten-free bakery in La Vista, will soon open a new location, replacing its current store at 10717 Virginia Plaza inside M Salon Studios. In the meantime, the business will operate via online ordering. Rebel Rise has only been in its space since December 2024 and previously operated as a cottage kitchen.

Smoothie King plans to open a fifth Omaha-area location. A building permit has been filed for tenant-finish in a new multi-tenant commercial building at 17902 West Maple Road. That’s the northeast corner of 180th & West Maple Road. That same intersection has a relatively new Costco on the southeast corner.

The Shaara Halal Eats (S.H.E) food truck will celebrate its grand opening Saturday, March 29th in the Menard’s parking lot at 708 North 120th Street. Locally owned by Moula and Shahanaz Shaik, the business is starting as a food truck but hopes someday to have a brick-and-mortar location.

Sheelytown Market, a plant nursery and gift shop, will relocate from 3522 Center Street near Hanscom Park to 1716 South 10th Street in Little Italy. An official closing and reopening date will be announced this week. Established in 2020, the store offers personalized light auditing visits, event space and plant inventory.

Bloc Fitness will host its grand opening and ribbon cutting on May 6 at 2027 Dodge Street, southeast of Joslyn Art Museum. The fitness center encourages members to “sculpt a lifestyle of movement and strength through each ‘bloc’ of effort” and will offer a walking track, private shower suites, turf area, certified trainers, Olympic lifting equipment, personal training sessions, a Canteen Market and Les Mills classes.

Roxxy Omaha, a retro bar concept from Iowa City, has abruptly closed its Capitol District location at 1150 Capitol Avenue just west of Texas de Brazil. The venue, which opened in November 2023, is under the same ownership as The Stuffed Olive, a martini bar next door with locations in Iowa City, Cedar Falls, and Madison, Wis.

Curry in a Hurry plans to close permanently on March 30. Located at 8303 Maple Street, the restaurant is known as “Omaha’s only drive-thru Indian restaurant.” In a Facebook post, the owners said they were not able to find a suitable real estate situation as the lease was expiring at the current location.

It looks like the aforementioned Curry in a Hurry space won’t be vacant for long. A business known as Flaming Bowls, has filed for a building permit.

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Twisted Cork Bistro Serves Standout Seafood with Deep Roots and Bold Flavors

The Twisted Cork Bistro originally opened in 2008, founded by Darrell and Laura Auld after moving to Omaha to be closer to family. It started as a small lunch-only bistro with just seven tables. Over time, it grew to include dinner service and expanded with the addition of a tavern side and full bar four years later.

The original building at Shaker Place (now Regency Landing) was going to be leveled. After the building’s sale, it was determined the bones were solid, so they were able to remodel, closing their doors for what was supposed to be six months.

It was two years before Twisted Cork Bistro reopened, largely due to pandemic-related delays. The Aulds successfully reopened in July 2022, and sales have continued to grow since.

At the helm is Brittany Love, director of operations. The Aulds recruited her from her management position at Starbucks, which was their go-to coffee spot.

“Darrell and Laura were my regulars at a Starbucks I managed,” Love said. “They kept saying, ‘You’ve got to come try this place. You’d be great here.’ I finally gave in—and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. I need to work here.’”

She started serving a couple nights a week, then became an assistant manager role and eventually general manager. Now she oversees all of the Auld’s restaurants, including The Vault.

Helping Love is front-of-house manager Jennie Ingalise, who began her service industry career at 15. She has been with Twisted Cork for nearly three years, handling day-to-day operations. She also has a big role in the wine list and has created close to 75 percent of the bistro’s cocktails.

What drew Jennie to Twisted Cork – and what continues to inspire her – is the restaurant’s unwavering dedication to sourcing natural, additive-free ingredients. She deeply respects the owners’ genuine care for their team and the quality of food they serve.

“It’s healthy food that still tastes amazing,” Ingalise said. “They take great pride in who they source from—and I respect that. It’s what drew me to the restaurant.”

In the kitchen is chef Tyler Schmidt, who began his journey with Twisted Cork Bistro in 2013, about the same time as Love. His background includes sushi and upscale cuisine, and he’s helped form the menu with his thoughtful technique and adventurous, global flavors.

Twisted Cork Bistro sources only wild-caught fish, including troll-caught sockeye salmon, wild Gulf shrimp and fresh ahi flown in through the Honolulu Fish Company. “We try to get everything as fresh as possible,” Love said.

The décor has the feel of a neighborhood bistro with exposed brick. A warm palette of light oranges and deep browns makes the space warm and inviting. A large window to the kitchen gives guests a view behind the scenes.

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U.S. News & World Report Ranks Omaha as America’s Hottest Housing Market

For the first time ever, U.S. News & World Report has named the Omaha metropolitan area as the hottest housing market in America, according to an article released this week.

Based on data from January 2025, U.S. News’ analysis of the hottest housing markets incorporates a wide array of data points and provides a simple-yet-comprehensive way to rank the covered metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) from “frigid to balmy” on a scale of 1-100. To earn its number-one ranking the Omaha MSA received a score of 76.2.

In general, the hottest housing markets this year are not the major markets that dominated in the past. The state of Colorado had four MSAs make the top 20 list, while South Carolina and Texas each had three. According to the article, this year’s hottest housing markets “seem to share big-city amenities without the high housing costs of MSAs closer to the megacities along the West and East coasts.”

Here are the top 10 hottest markets and their Housing Market Index scores:

1. Omaha – 76.2
2. Austin – 72.3
3. Houston – 72.1
4. Charleston, S.C. – 71.6
5. Denver – 71.5
6. St. Louis – 71.1
7. Columbia, S.C. – 70.9
8. Greeley, Colo. – 70.3
8. Greenville, S.C. – 70.3
9. San Antonio – 69.9
10. Detroit – 69.6

Several other MSAs in our region made the top 20 including #11 Kansas City (68.5); #16 Minneapolis-St. Paul (66.9); #17 Fort Collins, Colo. (66.1); #19 Colorado Springs (65.5); and #20 Oklahoma City (65.0).

Omaha’s Housing Market Index score of 76.2 rose 0.7 points year-over-year through January and compares with 75.5 in January 2024. During the same period, the overall U.S. score fell by -0.8 points to 66.6. Omaha’s scores have consistently ranked higher than the U.S. average since December 2019.

Omaha’s housing-market strengths include positive job growth, robust economic development activities, low unemployment rate, lower-than-average cost of living and the city’s use of Sanitary Improvement Districts to develop new residential subdivisions.

Although the article’s author was a bit surprised to see Omaha taking the top spot for the first time, he spoke to a number of local experts who didn’t seem terribly surprised. Omaha’s real estate practitioners have a great deal of confidence in their market.

“From robust economic development efforts by the Chamber of Commerce and an extremely active president of the Omaha Area Board of Realtors to a home builder of semi-custom homes who is grateful for the camaraderie offered by his competitors at the Metro Omaha Builders Association, it was easy to get a sense of why this ‘big small town where handshakes mean something’ is becoming more than a sleeper hit,” said Patrick Duffy, senior real estate economist at U.S. News & World Report.

During the 12-month period ending this past December, the Omaha MSA gained more than 12,000 nonfarm jobs, for a growth rate of about 2.4 percent, according to the article. Omaha’s unemployment rate in December was just 2.8 percent versus 4.1 percent nationally.

As housing has become tighter in Omaha, the share of multi-family units has grown vis-à-vis single-family houses, according to the article. Over the past year, 41 percent of Omaha’s residential building permits have been multi-family units compared to just 32 percent of permits in 2018.

Omaha’s median home sales price has fallen from a record high of $325,000 last June to $304,000 now.

“Last June, the Omaha MSA had under 1.2 months of supply, making for an unusually tight seller’s market. Since then, while the supply has varied month to month, ultimately rising to 2.2 months, it’s still much lower than the national average of 3.6 months,” the article said.

Median rent in Omaha has increased 4.3 percent year-over-year to $1,348 per month, the article said. That’s still 30 percent lower than the national level. Rental vacancy is down 1.5 percentage points to 5.6 percent.

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Isaiah Ang, Contributing Writer

Brad Williams has released another Grow Omaha Construction Update video. Featured projects range from the Mutual skyscraper downtown, to a Council Bluffs apartment building, to a wide variety projects in Midtown Omaha and the suburbs. Watch the video HERE.

The Catalyst, an innovation hub on the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s EDGE District campus, is opening for business inside a 119-year-old, 170,000 sq. ft. former steel-casting factory. UNeMed, Bio Nebraska, Invest Nebraska, RespirAI Medical, ViaRx, Forward Movement, LLC, Members.MD are among first tenants moving into The Catalyst. The building will also have a Big Grove Brewing taproom, which is opening this spring.

The 30-acre EDGE District is located west of Saddle Creek Road and south of Farnam Street. Other construction projects in the EDGE District include a 7-story parking garage and a 6-story office building and research building known as the C.O.R.E. Building.

OneWorld Community Health Centers held a groundbreaking for a healthcare facility on its South Omaha campus near the Livestock Exchange Building. The $17 million, 29,000 sq. ft. building will create up to 50 full-time jobs and will house the organization’s healthcare training facility. The 3-story building will have space for up to 10 new behavioral health therapists. Additionally, it will house a child development center and an epidemic response micro-unit.

Construction is progressing on TreeHouse, a mixed-use development in Council Bluffs at First Avenue & 34th Street. That’s just south of West Broadway. The development will consist of 12 buildings. Two of them will be retail, while six will be apartments and two will be townhouses. Altogether, TreeHouse will have 121 apartment units, 34 townhouses and 17,400 sq. ft. of retail space.

Crews started installing exterior glass panels yesterday on the east side of the Mutual of Omaha headquarters building under construction at 14th & Farnam Street. The building will be 677 feet tall with 800,000 sq. ft. of floor space when it opens at the end of 2026.

The 2025 Spring Parade of Homes, presented by the Metro Omaha Builders Association and Build Omaha, will take place March 29-30 and April 5-6. This free event will feature 61 houses in 43 different neighborhoods, with prices ranging from $280,000 to $2 million. Attendees can tour homes at their own pace. The official Parade of Homes website offers an interactive map, builder details and home previews: https://www.omahaspringparadeofhomes.com

Four reservoirs currently under construction or in planning stages have been officially named by the Papio Missouri River Natural Resources District.

Two of the projects include detention basins in the Gretna area that will be completed later this year. Detention basin WP-4, named Forest City Recreation Area, will be the first to be completed late this summer. It is located west of 204th & Schram Road and will have a 15-acre lake with 81 acres of parkland.

Detention basin WP-2, southeast of 180th & Giles Road, was named the Mad Bear Recreation Area in honor of the first Native American awarded with the Congressional Medal of Honor. The recreation area will consist of a 17-acre lake and 84 acres of parkland. It is slated to be completed this fall.

Regional detention basin, formerly referred to as WP-1, was named the Marlin Petermann Recreation Area, after a well-known nature conservationist. Located north of the Indian Pointe subdivision southwest of 180th & Fort Street, the detention basin will consist of a 20-acre lake and 106 acres of parkland. The project is under construction and will be completed spring 2027.

Dam Site 19, southwest of 204th & Giles Road, has been named the Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte Recreation Area. Picotte is famed as the first Native American woman to earn a medical degree. The recreation area will not start construction for another five years, but plans call for a 74-acre lake and 281 acres of parkland.

Together the new detention basins and dam site will bring additional capacity the region’s flood control system. Additionally, they will provide recreational opportunities for fishing, kayaking and other outdoor activities.

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NP Dodge has opened a residential real estate sales office at 11336 South 96th Street in Papillion’s Walnut Creek Plaza. Deb Graeve-Morrison and Eric Wieseler of NAI NP Dodge facilitated the lease transaction. The office replaces NP Dodge’s Papillion office at 4912 Shannon Drive.

Valmont Industries, Inc. has revealed its plans to mitigate the impact of tariffs in 2025. These include pricing actions, targeted cost measures, productivity initiatives and supply chain and logistics adjustments. The Omaha-based company believes these plans will enable it to be cost neutral in the second half of fiscal 2025 under both the current tariff regime and under a scenario where there are no United States Mexico-Canada Agreement exclusions granted for goods the company imports from Mexico and Canada. The majority of products Valmont ships to U.S. customers are manufactured at one of 24 facilities in the United States.

Union Pacific Corporation will release first quarter 2025 financial and operating results on Thursday, April 24 at 6:45 a.m. CDT. The company’s management team will host a conference call and live webcast at 7:45 a.m. CDT.

Weeder Pediatric Dentistry will open its new location on March 31 at 10723 Hillcrest Plaza, immediately west of a Children’s Physicians clinic near 108th & Giles. The one-story, 4,325 sq. ft. dental office replaces the previous location at 9825 Giles Road in La Vista.

Election Systems & Software and Printelect announced the renewal and expansion of their long-standing partnership. Under the new 10-year agreement extending through 2035, Printelect will continue serving as ES&S’ partner for equipment sales, service and ballot printing in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The expanded partnership now also includes Georgia.

AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A+ (superior) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings of “aa-” (superior) of Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company and its subsidiaries. Concurrently, AM Best has affirmed the Long-Term Issue Credit Ratings of “a” (excellent) of Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company’s surplus notes. AM Best has stated the outlook of these Credit Ratings is stable.

Functional Healthcare of Omaha, LLC, will hold a grand opening and ribbon cutting on April 1st for its new location at 18111 Q Street, #103.

An employee of FlightSafety International Inc. won Berkshire Hathaway’s 2025 Bracket Contest. The contest will receive $1 million as a result of correctly picking the winners of 31 out of 32 games of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament that were completed last Thursday and Friday. The winner, along with 11 other Berkshire subsidiary employee entrants, correctly picked the winners of 31 of the 32 games. The 11 runners up, who each selected fewer consecutive games correctly from the start of the tournament last Thursday, will each receive $100,000.

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Cole Young, Contributing Writer

Opening Day marks a significant turn of the page in the sports calendar and guarantees wall-to-wall sports (sans Mother’s Day) until the return of football season. Today is Opening Day for MLB and MiLB clubs, and the Omaha Storm Chasers will begin their 2025 campaign against the Iowa Cubs.

In 2024, Omaha set a new single-season franchise record with 89 wins and finished the regular season as the best overall team in the International League, securing its eighth league title. Manager Mike Jirschele received the International League Manager of the Year Award for the first time. The Storm Chasers went on to the Triple-A National Championship Game but fell to the Sugar Land Space Cowboys 13-6. Omaha embarks on the journey for another league championship and first national championship in Des Moines, Iowa, tomorrow.

March Madness is entering the Sweet Sixteen this weekend, and Omaha will not have any representatives for the first time in three seasons. Creighton was eliminated last Saturday in the Round of 32 by No. 1 overall seed Auburn, falling 82-70 after leading the Tigers by two at halftime. Omaha fell 83-53 to St. Johns in the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance on Thursday of the first weekend.

Creighton Women’s Basketball was also eliminated from the NCAA Tournament, falling 66-57 to Illinois on Saturday. Creighton went 26-7 on the year but came up short of a deep run in the tournament, losing in the first round after shooting just 36 percent from the floor and 27 percent from distance.

Senior Lauren Jensen is a finalist for the WBCA Coaches’ All-America team, averaging 17.8 points per game. Jensen scored 2,059 points in a Bluejay uniform, which places her third all-time in program history. She has been instrumental in the success of the Jays over the past four years and is among 50 finalists for the honor. Finding a place among the 10-player team would be a crowning achievement in her career.

Omaha Basketball and Chris Crutchfield have agreed on a multi-year contract extension through the 2029-30 season following the program’s historic year. Total compensation is not yet official but will put the head coach near the top of the Summit League in both salary and incentives.

Omaha Hockey’s Simon Latkoczy became the first player in program history to win the NCHC Conference Goaltender of the Year award last week at the annual awards celebration. The junior from Slovakia claimed the honor after going 12-8-1 on the year and posting conference-leading marks in save percentage (.926) and saves (952).

The transfer portal opened last week for college basketball and has already affected both programs in Omaha. Summit League Player of the Year and Omaha power forward Marquel Sutton entered his name into the portal and immediately becomes one of the top players available. He will be joined by teammate JJ White. Creighton’s Pop Isaacs and Mason Miller both announced plans to enter the portal as well and will most likely not be the only Bluejays to do so. However, Creighton got a huge addition and successor to Ryan Kalkbrenner with the commitment of Iowa center Owen Freeman on Wednesday. Freeman averaged 16.7 points and 6.7 rebounds per game last season for Iowa and was one of the best names of more than 700 currently in the portal.

The crosstown rivalry between Creighton and Omaha baseball Tuesday got out of hand quickly, resulting in a resounding 10-0 victory for Creighton. The Bluejays got off to a hot start with a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, featuring a two-run home run from Ben North. North’s second home run of the game came in the sixth inning before Connor Capece’s RBI single sealed the game in seven innings due to a run-rule decision. Omaha now falls to 5-17 after its hot start that featured a win over No. 3 LSU. Creighton rises to 14-6 on the year.

Another in-state rivalry took place in Omaha on Wednesday, with Papillion native Jordyn Bahl and Nebraska visiting Omaha Softball. Bahl got the start in her first collegiate game in Omaha, posting a 13-strikeout, one-hit shutout in a 5-0 win for the Huskers. A record 1,537 fans attended the game, marking the largest turnout for a game at Connie Claussen Field.

The Omaha Supernovas fell in their last game against the Indy Ignite, proving that it is in fact hard to beat a team three times in one season. After taking the first two matches of the year against the Ignite, the Supernovas lost Saturday in a sweep in front of 12,929 fans, the second-largest crowd in PVF history. Omaha will be back in action at home at 7 p.m. tomorrow against the Vegas Thrill for “Heroes Night”.

Sami Francis’ much anticipated debut for struggling LOVB Omaha was disrupted by LOVB Austin Friday, with the team losing in five sets in front of the sold-out crowd at Baxter Arena. Francis provided a needed boost to last-place Omaha, tying a team-high 15 points behind eight kills and six blocks in the match, but it wasn’t enough. She then tallied 11 points with 10 kills in Saturday’s four set loss to Houston. LOVB Omaha is last in league standings and on a nine-game losing streak. They are back in action Friday at 7 p.m. against LOVB Austin.

Upcoming Games

• Omaha Baseball vs. Northern Colorado | Series starting Friday, March 28 | 4:00 p.m.
• Creighton Softball vs. Connecticut | Series starting Friday, March 28 | 4:00 p.m.
  
• Creighton Baseball at Samford | Series starting Friday, March 28 | 6:00 p.m.
• Omaha Storm Chasers at Iowa Cubs | Series starting Friday, March 28 | 7:00 p.m.
• Omaha Supernovas vs. Vegas Thrill | Friday, March 28 | 7:00 p.m.
• LOVB Omaha vs. LOVB Austin | Friday, March 28 | 7:00 p.m.
• Omaha Softball vs. North Dakota | Series starting Saturday, March 29 | 1:00 p.m.
• LOVB Omaha vs. LOVB Salt Lake | Saturday, March 29 | 6:00 p.m.
• Omaha Beef vs. Idaho Horsemen | Saturday, March 29 | 6:30 p.m.
• Omaha Supernovas vs. Grand Rapids Rise | Sunday, March 30 | 3:00 p.m.
• Omaha Stormchasers vs. Louisville Bats | Series starting Tuesday, April 1 | 6:30 p.m.

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LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT

Confident leaders avoid overusing the phrase, “I think.” It can diminish your presence and undermine your confidence, according to Lorraine Lee’s recent CNBC article. Instead, try using, “I recommend.” Notice the difference: “I think we should move the deadline” as opposed to “I recommend moving the deadline.”

Worldwide, internet users spend an average of 400 minutes – nearly seven hours – a day online, according to Fortune. A current 18-year-old, who only lives to be 80, will spend more than 17 years of their adult life using the internet.

Researchers found that ChatGPT’s heaviest users are becoming dependent upon — or even addicted to — the chatbot, according to Futurism. This small subset of users engaged in more “problematic use,” defined as “indicators of addiction… including preoccupation, withdrawal symptoms, loss of control and mood modification.”

About 50 percent of parents financially support at least one of their adult children over the age of 18, according to Fortune. Working-age Gen Zers receive an average of $1,813 monthly from mom and dad, while millennials (aged 29 to 44) get about $863 a month. In many cases, this is significantly hampering parents’ financial outlook.

SALES

One of the most significant traits of top producers has to do with prospecting. They’re obsessed with it and are disciplined enough to do it every day. As a general rule, the newer you are in your sales role, the more prospecting you need to do. But even 40- and 50-year veterans should reserve some time for prospecting each day.

Top Performers – What makes a salesperson phenomenal? According to sales expert Michael Boyko, it comes to down to five “P” words: Push; Persistence; Positivity; Practice; and Patience.

Sales Stat – Forty-seven percent of buyers view three to five pieces of a company’s content before talking with a sales rep.

WISDOM

“It’s always better to find the correct person before they learn the wrong habits.” – Unknown

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Did you know that 30 percent of Nebraska’s population lives in Douglas County alone? Home to the City of Omaha, Douglas County has 601,158 people.

Did you know median age in Omaha is 36 and in Council Bluffs it’s 39?

Did you know JBS’s beef processing plant in South Omaha employs 900 workers and partners with more than 850 producers, paying them more than $520 million for their livestock each year?

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Unlock Midtown happening on March 28th – 30th: Unlock Midtown for a fun, family-friendly weekend of puzzles and exploration! Visit participating Midtown Crossing retailers to solve unique puzzles, and for 2025, there’s a Kids Edition with challenges geared toward ages 5-10. Pick up a guide at Spielbound to track your progress, and once all codes are solved, enter to win a Grand Prize Package worth $200+. Take your time, enjoy the experience and explore local shops and eateries along the way!

Women’s Vendor Market happening on March 30th: Join others for a Women’s Vendor Market celebrating talented women entrepreneurs and their unique products. Discover a diverse selection from gourmet popcorn, jams, handcrafted jewelry, baked goods, wellness services and more. Support local businesses and enjoy a shopping experience featuring vendors like Still Poppin Gourmet Popcorn, Nana Meg’s Jam & Jelly Works, Bling Co 29, The Pie Whole and many others.

The Untold Story of Sharks happening on March 30th: Join National Geographic Explorer Dr. Jess Cramp on a fascinating journey through the South Pacific to uncover the mysteries of sharks and their struggle for survival. As a shark researcher and conservationist, Jess co-led the creation of the Cook Islands Shark Sanctuary, protecting more than 770,000 square miles of ocean. Through her organization, Sharks Pacific, she continues to conduct research, advocacy and community engagement to safeguard sharks and traditional ways of life. Discover what it truly means to save sharks and protect our oceans.

Robotics Speaker Series: Building AI Hardware Products with Jared Ostdiek happening on April 2nd: Jared will be joining the Nebraska Innovation Studio virtually to explore his career journey designing consumer electronics – from flagship devices like the iPhone to the 0-to-1 Ai wearables like the Ai Pin. Jared will share the challenges and triumphs of shipping complex hardware and software products. Join the conversation!

Yoga in the Garden happening on April 2nd: Breathe, get grounded and enjoy gentle balancing & stretching movement in this Hatha Yoga class that honors the seasons. Take the time to unwind and treat your senses to the beauty of Lauritzen Gardens — a wonderful mid-week break for body, mind and spirit. All levels and everybody are welcome. Bring whatever props (i.e., pillow, mat, cork blocks, bolster, eye-mask, blanket) that you feel are necessary in making your practice the most comfortable it can possibly be. Pre-registration is required.

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Union Pacific Railroad has announced the appointment of Christina Conlin as senior vice president, chief legal officer and corporate secretary succeeding Craig Richardson, who is set to retire at the end of March. Conlin will oversee all aspects of the company’s legal affairs. She joined Union Pacific last December as senior vice president and deputy legal counsel.

First Westroads Bank has appointed its Chief Financial Officer, Margie Heller, to its board of directors. A Nebraska native, Heller has more than 40 years of experience at multiple banks.

Buildertrend Chief Marketing Officer, Brooke Brockman has been recognized as one of The Top 50 Women Leaders in Software of 2024 by The Software Report. The honor highlights Brockman’s leadership in the software industry and her significant contributions to Buildertrend’s growth.

Fraser Stryker has welcomed attorney Megan Halbur to the firm’s business and corporate team.

U.S. Rep. Don Bacon will recognize Habitat for Humanity CEO Amanda Brewer at an event tomorrow as a woman who has built, strengthened and inspired America. Each year during Women’s History Month, Bacon recognizes a woman from his district who shapes the community through service and leadership. Past honorees include Catherine Lang, Carmen Tapio and Carol McBride Pirsch.

The Greater Omaha Chamber is a catalyst and connector, advocating for businesses small and large. Learn, share and grow with more than 12,000 professionals from 3,000 member businesses across Greater Omaha. Click HERE to see our latest events.

For the past two weeks, Mr. Market has been in the throes of a hissy fit. During the prior 24 months, he was like a Belgian plow horse, steadily plodding forward with never a whipper or a neigh. Then, out of the blue, KABAM! The fit hit the shan and we are on the road to Armageddon.

In order to make some sense out of this insanity, I whipped out my handy Funk and Wagnalls, and consulted their definition of an urban myth. An urban myth is commentary on an event, but nobody’s willing to admit they have no idea what’s going on.

The primary source of Wall Street urban myths are Cramer and his media sycophants. Normally, the Wall Street Journal is a card-carrying member of this crowd, but recent articles in their cage liner indicate that they may have better insight into current events than all the MSNBC talking heads combined.

Some members of the WSJ staff understand that the market consists of multiple, diverse moving parts – not the monolithic group of investors sitting in front of a financial screen envisioned by the financial media and academia. They have come to realize that when a nontraditional player makes a move, it’s like the first domino in a six-mile domino chain. It falls and sends a shock wave through the whole system.

Parsing together snippets from the WSJ, the most believable explanation of Mr. Market’s recent temper tantrum goes something like this; A pod of ginormous hedge fund managers decided that Tesla was on the edge of collapse because of Musk and the DOGE thing. So, they placed big bets on a Tesla belly flip with money borrowed from the Wall Street money center banks.

Enter stage left, another group of equally near-sighted commodity guys from the CBOE pits, bet the farm that the Wall Street guys were holding flaming bags of dog droppings.

Enter stage right, the algorithm guys and the high-speed traders, and what follows, looks like a food fight in a high school cafeteria. Domino number two falls and the Wall Street banks ask the hedge fund brainiacs to return the money they borrowed. Down goes domino three, four, five and six.

In the mist of this falderal, a WSJ journalist writes that mom and pop panicked and started selling like crazy. Well, sort of. Activity in the United States’ 7,737 401(k) plans increased to four times normal. From .0013 percent of the total value of all 401(k) plans to .0046 percent. Not exactly a feeding frenzy.

The moral of the story is that the market is not a rational. Main Street is smarter than Wall Street.

For my Market Half Time Report, visit my podcast, “Wall Street for Dummies.”

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