Foreclosures | Mortgages | Financing
Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State and current Democratic nominee for president, is adding one of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s close allies and a former executive at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to her transition team as she prepares for the coming election. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
Medicines Co. shares dropped in the extended session Tuesday after the biotech company said an ongoing study of a drug meant to remove bad cholesterol from the walls of blood vessels has yet to show effectiveness. Medicines Co. shares fell 10% to $36.05 after hours. The company said an interim analysis of 40 patients treated with the drug MDCO-216 did not meet the “pre-defined, upper statistical boundary for efficacy.” The company said it has enrolled 120 patients in the study and will continue and results will be presented in November.
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From:: Stock Market News
Oil futures edged lower in electronic trading Tuesday after the American Petroleum Institute reported a 942,000-barrel rise in U.S. crude supplies for the week ended August 26, according to sources. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts forecast a weekly increase of 600,000 barrels. The API also reported that distillate supplies rose by 3 million barrels, sources said. Analysts expected them to be unchanged, according to the S&P Global Platts survey. The closely watched Energy Information Administration report will be released Wednesday. October crude was at $46.27 a barrel in electronic trading, down from the contract’s settlement of $46.35 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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From:: Stock Market News
Tucked into all the hottest housing markets lists jam-packed with California markets, there remains one city outside the Golden State that keeps on making the cut. Several industry reports came out on Tuesday that show the ferocity of the Big D. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
H&R Block Inc. shares fell in the extended session Tuesday after the accounting services provider missed Wall Street targets for quarterly results. H&R Block shares fell 6.4% to $22.65 after hours. The company reported a loss of 55 cents a share on revenue of $125.2 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast a loss of 53 cents a share on revenue of $132.9 million.
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From:: Stock Market News
Palo Alto Networks Inc. reported quarterly revenue of more than $400 million for the first time Tuesday, and said it plans to buy back $500 million in stock. The security-software company reported a net loss of $54.5 million, or 61 cents a share, on revenue of $400.8 million, a 41% gain from the same quarter a year ago. After adjustments for share-based compensation and other factors, Palo Alto Networks reported profit of 50 cents a share. Analysts expected on average for Palo Alto Networks to report adjusted earnings of 50 cents a share on revenue of $390 million, according to FactSet. The company also said its billings, an important metric for cloud-software firms representing deferred revenue, were $572.4 million; analysts polled by FactSet expected billings of $561.8 million. Palo Alto Networks, which went public in 2012, also announced a $500 million share repurchase plan was approved by the board of directors. The stock, which closed with a 1.4% gain at $143.45, moved about 2% higher in late trading.
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From:: Stock Market News
U.S. stocks on Tuesday finished in negative territory, following more comments from Federal Reserve policy makers that emphasized the central bank’s intention to raise interest rates sooner rather than later. A drop in oil prices along with a stronger dollar also weighed on the main equity benchmarks. The S&P 500 index ended down 4 points, or 0.2%, at 2,176. Among the S&P 500’s 10 sectors, the only one ending higher was the financial sector, which tends to benefit from heightened prospects of higher interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 49 points, or 0.3%, at 18,454. Shares of banks, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. led the gains, while shares of Boeing Co. topped blue-chip decliners. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 9 points, or 0.2%, to end at 5,223. Among high-profile stock movers, shares of Apple Inc. fell 0.8% after European Union antitrust officials ordered the Irish government to recover as much as 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in taxes from the Cupertino, Calif.-based iPhone maker.
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From:: Stock Market News
Gold futures still have room to climb this year even as the Federal Reserve seesaws between a dovish and hawkish stance on monetary policy. Prices for the yellow metal may make “another try” at the $1,400-an-ounce level later this year, George Milling-Stanley, head of gold investment strategy at State Street Global Advisors, said in a TV interview with CNBC. He said he can’t guarantee a rate increase at all, with the Fed appearing to be “dovish one day and hawish another” day. He expects gold to see muted trading for the rest of the year but despite that, prices may still see another $50, $60 or $70 rise. Also on CNBC, Tom McClellan, editor of The McClellan Market Report, said next year and 2018 should be “hugely bullish” for gold. On Tuesday, December gold fell $10.60, or 0.8%, to settle at $1,316.50 an ounce-a two-month low.
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From:: Stock Market News
Data released for June 2016 shows that home prices continued their rise across the country over the last 12 months.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, reported a 5.1 percent annual gain in June, unchanged from last month. The 10-City Composite posted a 4.3 percent annual increase, down from 4.4 percent the previous month. The 20-City Composite reported a year-over-year gain of 5.1 percent, down from 5.3 percent in May.
Portland, Seattle, and Denver reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities over each of the last five months. In June, Portland led the way with a 12.6 percent year-over-year price increase, followed by Seattle at 11.0 percent, and Denver with a 9.2 percent increase. Six cities reported greater price increases in the year ending June 2016 versus the year ending May 2016.
Before seasonal adjustment, the National Index posted a month-over-month gain of 1.0 percent while both the 10-City Composite and the 20-City Composite posted a 0.8 percent increase in June. After seasonal adjustment, the National Index recorded a 0.2 percent month-over-month increase, and both the 10-City Composite and 20-City Composite posted 0.1 percent month-over-month decreases. After seasonal adjustment, nine cities saw prices rise, two cities were unchanged, and nine cities experienced negative monthly prices changes.
“Home prices continued to rise across the country led by the west and the south,” says David M. Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “In the strongest region, the Pacific Northwest, prices are rising at more than 10 percent; in the slower Northeast, prices are climbing a bit faster than inflation. Nationally, home prices have risen at a consistent 4.8 percent annual pace over the last two years without showing any signs of slowing.
“Overall, residential real estate and housing is in good shape,” he continued. “Sales of existing homes are at running at about 5.5 million units annually with inventory levels under five months, indicating a fairly tight market. Sales of new single family homes were at a 654,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate in July, the highest rate since November 2007. Housing starts in July topped an annual rate of 1.2 million units. While the real estate sector and consumer spending are contributing to economic growth, business capital spending continues to show weakness.”
Quicken Loans vice president Bill Banfield offered the following comments on the report:
“The strong home price growth in much of the country, and meteoric rise in the West, is led by a continued lack of homes available for sale. While homeowners welcome rising prices, it could begin to hinder new buyers if affordability comes into question – especially with home prices rising twice the speed of inflation in much of the country.”
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From:: Finance and Economy
An escalation in prepayment volume pushed up quarterly losses from mortgage servicing rights activity and drove earnings at the mortgage servicers deeper into the red.
Residential loan servicers lost an average of over 8 basis points on each loan that they serviced during the period that started on April 1, 2016, and concluded on June 30.
Average earnings deteriorated compared to the first quarter, when losses amounted to less than 6 BPS, and swung from an 11-basis-point profit in the second-quarter 2015.
From:: Financing