LONDON (AP) — Prince William’s Duchy of Cornwall plans to sell about 20% of its 1 billion pound ($1.3 billion) property portfolio over the next decade to consolidate its holdings and finance plans to build thousands of homes, expand renewable energy production and pursue wildlife restoration projects.
Will Bax, the chief executive of the duchy, or domain, revealed the plans in an interview with the Times of London that the newspaper published on Monday. They are in line with the duchy’s strategy of consolidating its far-flung holdings and investing the proceeds in environmental and social projects, which was announced in its most recent annual report.
William has decided that the duchy “shouldn’t just exist to own land,” Bax told the Times. “It should first and foremost exist to have a positive impact on the world.”
The initiative comes as Britain's royal family in general and the Duchy of Cornwall specifically are under pressure to be more transparent about their finances and to show that the monarchy provides value for money for taxpayers.
The duchy, created in the 14th century to provide an income for the Prince of Wales, owns 52,173 hectares (131,393 acres) of land in 19 counties across England.
The duchy now plans to focus on five “heartlands” in the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, Dartmoor and the Bath area, all in southwestern England, as well as the Kennington area of London, Bax said.
Land sales will help the duchy invest about 500 million pounds in housing, renewable energy and environmental projects, he said.
The duchy’s profits support the public and private life of the Prince and Princess of Wales and their three children. It reported a profit of 22.9 million pounds in the financial year ending March 31, 2025.
While the current Prince of Wales is entitled to the duchy’s operating profits, he cannot sell its property to benefit himself. The duchy’s activities are overseen by a board of directors that is charged with protecting the assets for future generations. Large property transactions must be approved by the government to ensure the long-term value of the assets.
FILE - Britain's Prince William pays a visit to the headquarters of British Formula E team, Jaguar TCS Racing, at Kidlington, England, Thursday April 23, 2026. (Justin Tallis, Pool Photo via AP, file)
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices swung Monday after a scare overnight where prices popped and then moderated, and the yo-yo moves kept stock markets worldwide unsettled.
The S&P 500 edged up by 0.1% in morning trading after flipping between modest gains and losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 187 points, or 0.4%, as of 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was down 0.1% but remained near its all-time high set last week like the S&P 500.
The center of the action recently has been the world’s bond markets, where climbing yields have cranked up the pressure on economies and stock markets worldwide. Higher yields make it more expensive for households and businesses to borrow, which U.S. homebuyers are all too familiar with because of higher mortgage rates.
Higher interest rates could also make it more difficult for companies to borrow to build huge data centers for artificial-intelligence technology, which has been driving much of the U.S. economy’s growth.
Yields have been climbing for several reasons, and at the top of them have been oil prices. The war with Iran has trapped many oil tankers in the Persian Gulf instead of delivering crude to customers worldwide, which in turn has driven up crude’s price.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, got as high as $112 overnight after President Donald Trump told Iran on his social-media platform Sunday that “the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them.”
But prices eased later in the morning, with hopes still remaining that the two sides can reach a deal that would get oil flowing worldwide again. The price for a barrel of Brent crude fell back to $108.75, down 0.5% from Friday, though that's still well above its roughly $70 price from before the war.
That drop in oil prices helped boost stock markets that hadn’t finished trading yet, and France’s CAC 40 index went from a loss of 1.2% to a gain of 0.6%. By that point, Japan’s Nikkei 225 had already finished 1% lower, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 1.1%.
On Wall Street, Dominion Energy pushed upward on the U.S. stock market after NextEra Energy agreed to buy it in an all-stock deal to create the world’s largest regulated electric utility by market value. Dominion rallied 10%, and NextEra fell 5%.
Boston Scientific climbed 5% after saying it would spend $2 billion on its previously announced stock buyback program of $5 billion by the end of June. Such purchases send cash directly to investors and boost the company’s per-share earnings.
Delta Air Lines rose 2.7%, aided by lower oil prices and news that Berkshire Hathaway bought more than $2.6 billion of the airline’s stock. Berkshire Hathaway built a reputation as a value investor able to buy stocks at low prices under its former leader, Warren Buffett.
Pulling downward on Wall Street was Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. It dropped 10.7% after reporting discouraging data from a trial of a treatment for melanoma.
This upcoming week will offer little in terms of data on the U.S. economy, but a heavily anticipated report on Nvidia’s latest quarterly results will arrive Wednesday. The chip company has routinely blown past analysts’ expectations each quarter, while forecasting even bigger growth than Wall Street had thought. It will likely need to keep up such momentum to keep AI stocks driving the market to more records.
Target, Home Depot and Walmart will also report their latest quarterly results this week.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was at 4.59%, back to where it was late Friday, after climbing as high as 4.63% overnight when oil prices were at their heights.
The yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond rallied toward its highest level since the late 1990s.
Yields worldwide have been climbing on fears about higher inflation caused by higher oil prices, which in turn could push central banks not only to abandon the thought of cutting interest rates but also consider hiking rates. Higher rates would slow inflation but at the cost of hurting the economy and dragging on prices for stocks and other investments.
Several solid reports on the U.S. economy recently, along with worries about the U.S. government’s huge and growing debt problem, are also pushing upward on yields.
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
Trader Michael Milano, center, works with colleagues on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Trader Michael Capolino works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A Global Medical Response helicopter sits in front of the New York Stock Exchange before the planned IPO of GMR Solutions, Inc., Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, May 18, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A delivery person on a bicycle waits for a traffic light near an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, May 18, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic board at a business building showing Japan's Nikkei index, Monday, May 18, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, May 18, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
