Theranos eliminates 155 employees

Theranos Inc. announced Friday that it has cut 155 of its core employees as it tries to commercialize its miniLab testing platform. It will keep 220 staffers. Teams have been organized around product development, regulatory and commercial benchmarks, the company said on Friday. Theranos is involved in a number of lawsuits, including a $140 million case filed by Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. alleging breach of contract, the fallout from infractions discovered at the blood-testing company’s lab last year, as the Wall Street Journal reported. Theranos was valued at $9 billion at its peak in 2014.

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From:: Stock Market News

Trump says there was ‘no effect’ on election from hacking

President-elect Donald Trump said Friday there was “absolutely no effect” on the outcome of the election despite consistent attempts by hackers to break into U.S. governmental institutions. Trump met with U.S. intelligence officials on Friday, a day after they told Congress Russia was responsible for pre-election hacking. Trump has disagreed with that conclusion. Trump said he will appoint a team to give him a cybersecurity plan within 90 days of taking office.

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From:: Stock Market News

Quicken Parent Getting In Mortgage Lead Business

With a deal reached to make two upcoming acquisitions, the parent of Quicken Loans Inc. will be in the business of mortgage lead generation.

An announcement Friday from Rock Holdings Inc., the parent of Quicken, indicated that it has signed an agreement to acquire a pair of companies.

One of those acquisitions will be LowerMyBills, which generates leads for a variety of verticals — including residential loans and reverse mortgages.


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From:: Financing

Multiple people dead in Fort Lauderdale shooting: reports

Multiple people have been shot and killed Friday at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, according to multiple reports. According to a tweet from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and CNN, a gunman is being held in custody. CNN reported that at least nine people were injured in the shooting. The news comes amid heightened concerns about global terrorism and as the Dow Jones Industrial Average is attempting to crack a psychological milestone of 20,000.

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From:: Stock Market News

Neiman Marcus withdraws initial public offering

Neiman Marcus Group Inc. requested to withdraw its initial public offering Friday, saying the IPO is “not in its best interests” at this time. The company filed to go public in August 2015. The company did not elaborate further on the reason, but other traditional retailers such as Macy’s and Sears have been suffering as consumers move online. The prospectus has not yet been declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission and no securities have been sold in connection with the offering. It requested that all fees already paid to the SEC related to the filing be “credited for future use.”

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From:: Stock Market News

Gold falls for the session, but gains for a second-straight week

Gold futures settled lower on Friday, as strength in the U.S. dollar and equities dulled investment demand for the precious metal. Prices, however, gained about 1.8% for the week, buoyed by uncertainty surrounding the pace of interest-rate increases by the Federal Reserve. February gold fell $7.90, or 0.7%, for the session to settle at $1,173.40 an ounce.

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From:: Stock Market News

Dow flirts extremely close to 20K milestone

The Dow flirted extremely close to the 20,000 psychological milestone on Friday, spending most of the morning and early afternoon reaching less than half a percentage point off the threshold at times. Ever since the presidential election, the Dow, viewed as an indicator of economic health, edged closer, with Friday’s rise marking another record high. …read more

From:: Real Estate Wire

Baker Hughes data show U.S. oil-rig count up a 10th week in a row

Data from Baker Hughes Friday revealed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil climbed by 4 to 529 rigs this week. That marks the tenth weekly climb in a row. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, also rose 7 to 665, according to Baker Hughes. February West Texas Intermediate crude was up 25 cents, or 0.5%, at $54.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, little changed from the level it traded at before the data.

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From:: Stock Market News

Interest rates may have to rise ‘briskly,’ Richmond Fed president says

Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker said interest rates may need to rise “more briskly than markets anticipate” with unemployment at or near sustainable employment and inflation “very close” to the 2% target. Lacker, considered a hawkish member, said he expects 2% GDP growth in 2017, reflecting some probability of a fiscal boost, before growth slows to 1.75% in 2018 and beyond. Lacker isn’t a voting Federal Open Market Committee member this year.

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From:: Stock Market News

2016 HECM Originations Slump Despite Monthly Surge

Despite a surge in the final month of last year for federally insured reverse mortgage production, annual production slumped.

Last month, endorsements were issued by the Federal Housing Administration for 4,658 home-equity conversion mortgages.

HECM production soared from 3,891 units during November. It was also greater than 4,233 loans in the final month of 2015.


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From:: Financing