Foreclosures | Mortgages | Financing
For the last 13 years, the Chicago White Sox played their games at U.S. Cellular Field, but beginning next year and for the next 12 after that, the White Sox stadium will have a new name – Guaranteed Rate Field, as the White Sox and Guaranteed Rate announced that the Chicago-based mortgage lender is buying the White Sox stadium’s naming rights for at least the next 13 years. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
The mortgage market could be staring at a liquidity crisis in the very near future thanks in part to the Federal Reserve’s repeated reluctance to increase interest rates, Kroll Bond Rating Agency Senior Managing Director Christopher Whalen told CNBC on Wednesday. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
Guess Inc. shares soared 14.2% in Wednesday after-hours trading after the apparel and accessories company reported fiscal second-quarter earnings and same-store sales that beat consensus. Net income for the quarter totaled $32.3 million, or 38 cents per share, up from $18.3 million, or 21 cents per share, for the same period last year. Adjusted earnings were 14 cents per share, beating the FactSet consensus of 6 cents per share. Sales totaled $545.0 million, down from $546.3 million, and below the $551.0 million FactSet consensus. Same-store sales for the Americas retail segment, including e-commerce, fell 2%, compared with the FactSet estimate of a 4.3% decline. Guess expects third-quarter sales to increase between 5% and 8% and earnings per share in the range of 11 cents and 16 cents. FactSet sees revenue totaling $568.5 million, about 9% higher than $521.0 million last year. And the FactSet third-quarter EPS consensus is 16 cents per share. Guess stock is down 25.6% for the past year while S&P 500 Index us up nearly 15% for the same period.
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From:: Stock Market News
Workday Inc. shares rose in the extended session Wednesday as the finance and human resources cloud company topped Wall Street revenue targets for the second quarter but forecast revenue that fell below the consensus. Workday shares rose 4.5% to $83.20 after hours. The company reported an adjusted second-quarter loss of 4 cents a share on revenue of $377.7 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast a loss of 2 cents a share on revenue of $372.7 million. For the third quarter, Workday forecast revenue of $398 million to $400 million, while analysts expect $401.3 million.
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From:: Stock Market News
Shares of Williams-Sonoma Inc. fell in Wednesday’s extended session after the kitchenware retailer released a weak outlook for the current quarter. Williams-Sonoma reported second-quarter earnings of $51.8 million, or 58 cents a share, compared with $53.7 million, or 58 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. The year-earlier quarter’s earnings per share included a 3-cent tax benefit. Revenue edged up to $1.16 billion from $1.13 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of 58 cents a share on revenue of $1.17 billion. The San Francisco-based company projected third-quarter earnings of 75 cents a share to 80 cents a share and revenue in a range of $1.24 billion to $1.29 billion. Analysts are projecting EPS of 81 cents and revenue of $1.29 billion. Shares fell 0.8% after hours.
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From:: Stock Market News
HP Inc. , reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings Wednesday afternoon, but the company’s stock still declined in late trading. The PC and printer-focused arm of Hewlett-Packard, which split into HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. last year, reported net profit of $783 million, or 46 cents a share, on sales of $11.89 billion. After adjusting for discontinued operations, restructuring charges and other effects, HP claimed earnings of 48 cents a share. HP was expected to post adjusted earnings of 44 cents a share on sales of $11.46 billion, according to analysts polled by FactSet. HP shares fell as the company’s outlook for the fiscal fourth quarter came up short: HP predicted adjusted earnings of 34 to 37 cents a share, while analysts on average expect profit of 41 cents a share, according to FactSet. HP stock, which closed with a decline of 1.2% at $14.40, dropped under $14 in late trading, losing about 4%.
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From:: Stock Market News
Fitbit Inc. was cleared of accusations that it stole trade secrets from rival Jawbone Inc. on Tuesday. “No party has been shown to have misappropriated any trade secret,” U.S. International Trade Commission Judge Dee Lord said in her finding. If Fitbit had been found guilty, the ITC could have banned U.S. imports of its fitness trackers. The determination is still subject to review by the commission, and a final decision is expected in December. “Jawbone’s allegations were utterly without merit and nothing more than a desperate attempt by Jawbone to disrupt Fitbit’s momentum to compensate for their own lack of success in the market,” Fitbit co-founder and CEO James Park said in a statement. The dispute is not over yet, with Jawbone saying in a statement: “We intend to seek review of today’s ruling before the full Commission. The case in the ITC involved a very small subset of Jawbone’s trade secrets asserted against Flextronics and Fitbit.” Jawbone is also pursuing a separate trade-secrets case against Fitbit in California state court.
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From:: Stock Market News
Slowed by frustratingly low inventory levels in many parts of the country, existing-home sales lost momentum in July and decreased year-over-year for the first time since November 2015, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Only the West region saw a monthly increase in closings in July.
Total existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, fell 3.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.39 million in July from 5.57 million in June. For only the second time in the last 21 months, sales are now below (1.6 percent) a year ago (5.48 million).
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says existing sales fell off track in July after steadily climbing the last four months. “Severely restrained inventory and the tightening grip it’s putting on affordability is the primary culprit for the considerable sales slump throughout much of the country last month,” he says. “Realtors® are reporting diminished buyer traffic because of the scarce number of affordable homes on the market, and the lack of supply is stifling the efforts of many prospective buyers attempting to purchase while mortgage rates hover at historical lows.”
Adds Yun, “Furthermore, with new condo construction barely budging and currently making up only a small sliver of multi-family construction, sales suffered last month as condo buyers faced even stiffer supply constraints than those looking to purchase a single-family home.”
The median existing-home price for all housing types in July was $244,100, up 5.3 percent from July 2015 ($231,800). July’s price increase marks the 53rd consecutive month of year-over-year gains.
Total housing inventory at the end of July inched 0.9 percent higher to 2.13 million existing homes available for sale, but is still 5.8 percent lower than a year ago (2.26 million) and has now declined year-over-year for 14 straight months. Unsold inventory is at a 4.7-month supply at the current sales pace, which is up from 4.5 months in June.
“Although home sales are still expected to finish the year at their strongest pace since the downturn, thanks to a very strong spring, the housing market is undershooting its full potential because of inadequate existing inventory combined with new home construction failing to catch up with underlying demand,” adds Yun. “As a result, sales in all regions are now flat or below a year ago and price growth isn’t slowing to a healthier and sustainable pace.”
The share of first-time buyers was 32 percent in July, which is below last month (33 percent) but up from 28 percent a year ago. First-time buyers represented 30 percent of sales in all of 2015.
All-cash sales were 21 percent of transactions in July, down from 22 percent in June, 23 percent a year ago and the lowest share since November 2009 (19 percent). Individual investors, who account for many cash sales, purchased 11 percent of homes in July, unchanged from June and down from 13 percent a year ago. Seventy percent of investors paid in cash in July.
According to Freddie Mac, the average commitment rate for a 30-year, …read more
From:: Finance and Economy
Health-care shares tumbled Wednesday, making it the worst performing of the S&P 500 Index’s ten sectors, as pricing issues in the industry flared up again, first inflamed by an astronomical price hike of a cancer drug by then-Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli. The sector declined 1.7%, compared with a 0.7% slip in the broader index. Shares of Mylan dropped 6% on continuing controversy over the company’s EpiPen pricing. On the Dow Jones Industrial Average, UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Merck Inc. were the worst performers. Meanwhile, the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF fell 3.5%.
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From:: Stock Market News
Mortgage servicers looking to get their hands on some Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage servicing rights have that opportunity, as $2.8 billion in Fannie and Freddie MSRs just hit the market. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire