Foreclosures | Mortgages | Financing
The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. finished last year on a high note, with monthly business reaching an annual high. But delinquency was the worst in 17 months.
As of Dec. 31, Freddie Mac’s total mortgage portfolio was $2.0976 trillion, according to its Monthly Volume Summary: December 2017.
The McLean, Virginia-based organization’s book of business expanded from $2.0821 trillion one month earlier and $2.0114 trillion one year earlier.
From:: Financing
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has cut as many as 500 corporate staffers in its Bentonville, Ark. headquarters across areas like human resources and real estate, the company confirmed on Friday. Most workers were notified on Thursday. “As we’ve previously stated, we’ve been looking at our structure for some time as we explore ways to operate more effectively,” the company said in a statement. The company will promote more than 360 associates into positions “with higher responsibility,” a Wal-Mart spokesperson said. These positions will be in focus areas for the company, like its expansion in online grocery. Workers that were laid off will be paid for up to 60 days as they search for a new job, and Wal-Mart will provide outplacement services, resume skills training, and other counseling through its employee assistance program. After 60 days, workers who did not find another job will be offered a severance package that’s based on company policy, their position and length of service. Eligible workers will also receive a fiscal year-end incentive. Wal-Mart shares are up nearly 61% for the past year while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 31.3% for the period.
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From:: Stock Market News
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut on Friday announced they had launched a coalition to sue the federal government to challenge the recently passed tax bill and its reduction in state and local tax deductibility. Governors of the three states said in a statement that the tax-law changes “unfairly target” states whose residents have come to rely on being able to deduct big local tax burdens from their federal tax returns. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called the changes “a clear and politically motivated punishment of blue states – like New Jersey and our neighbors – who already pay far more to the federal government than we receive.” In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has also pledged to “launch a repeal-and-replace strategy,” and to “explore the feasibility of a major shift in the structure of state tax policy.”
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From:: Stock Market News
The U.S. Treasury Department said it’s sanctioned 21 individuals and 9 entities related to Russia and Ukraine. The government said the move “underscores the U.S. government’s opposition to Russia’s occupation of Crimea and firm refusal to recognize its attempted annexation of the peninsula.”
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From:: Stock Market News
Journalist Jemele Hill is leaving ESPN’s SportsCenter, The Hollywood Reporter wrote on Friday, citing unnamed sources. Hill, the co-host of SportsCenter’s 6 p.m. show titled “The Six,” has been at the center of an onslaught of recent criticism of the Walt Disney Co.-owned ESPN and its perceived liberal bias. In October ESPN suspended Hill for a second violation of the company’s social media guidelines, which they later updated. She suggested on Twitter that fans boycott advertisers of the National Football League and before that she called President Donald Trump a white supremacist. Hill’s last day on SportsCenter will be Feb. 2, just two days before the Super Bowl, and co-host Michael Smith will host the show on his own after that. Hill will still work at ESPN as a writer for The Undefeated, sources told The Hollywood Reporter. She still has three years left on her four-year contract with ESPN. Shares of Disney have gained roughly 3% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 24% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 31%.
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From:: Stock Market News
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading squarely in record territory on Friday, with almost all of the advance on the back of a run-up in shares of components Intel and 3M Co. Intel Corp. saw its shares rise about 9%, or $4.10, while 3M Co.’s stock was up 1.9%, or about $5, combining to contribute more than 60 points to the Dow . A $1 move in any one of the price-weighted, blue-chip average’s 30 components translates to a 6.83-point swing. The Dow was up 64 points, or 0.2%, at 26,457, in recent trade, trading in record territory, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.4% at 2,849. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index was gaining 0.5% at 7,446. Both Intel and 3M recently reported fourth-quarter results that exceeded Wall Street expectations, underscoring what has been a solid start to earnings season.
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From:: Stock Market News
Video game maker Electronic Arts Inc. and the National Football League said on Friday they are teaming up with Walt Disney Co.-owned ESPN and Disney XD to broadcast EA’s upcoming “Madden NFL” league and championship series. The “Madden NFL” gaming league is a first-of-its-kind one-on-one competitive gaming sports league. The league, and EA’s partnership with Disney to broadcast it, illustrates the increasing interest in Esports. Between Super Bowl LII and the 2018 NFL draft, Disney XD and the ESPN app will house competitive gaming content from “Madden NFL 18,” according to a news release. Some of the games will also air across ESPN’s different cable TV channels. Disney shares are up roughly 3% in the last 12 months, while shares of Electronic Arts are up more than 39%. By comparison, the S&P 500 index is up more than 24% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 31%.
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From:: Stock Market News
Shares of General Electric Co. slumped 0.8% in morning trade Friday, which puts them below Monday’s more-than six-year closing low, after J.P. Morgan analyst Stephen Tusa said there are still “more questions than answers” after the industrial conglomerate’s fourth-quarter results and disclosure of an SEC investigation. “With everything that has now happened since new management has come onboard…, we don’t know how a value investor or ratings agency analyst can have confidence in the ultimate value of assets here, most notably what’s hung up on the industrial balance sheet, which will get a harder look by any potential buyer as the portfolio begins to come apart,” Tusa wrote in a note to clients. “We continue to see a levered industrial company with weak levels of [free cash flow]…, with a side dish of levered finco, with a management team in the tough position, working to prevent a ‘hard landing’ in which bond investors start to worry about liquidity.” He reiterated his underweight rating and $16 stock price target. The stock, which has now lost 5% since fourth-quarter results were reported before Wednesday’s open, was on track to close at the lowest level since Dec. 1, 2011. It has plunged 25% over the past three months, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has rallied 13%.
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From:: Stock Market News
Shares of Amazon.com Inc. are up 0.8% in Friday morning trading, and reached an all-time intraday high of $1,392.27 earlier in the session, after analysts at Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock to $1,400, from $1,250. The analysts, led by Brian Nowak, also raised their bull case on shares to $2,100 from $2,000. Nowak is upbeat about Amazon’s ad-revenue opportunities and the US trade budget spend. ” In all, we estimate that US trade spend is $178bn, with $55bn spent on vendor allowances that we believe is directly addressable and could shift to online advertising,” he wrote. This could boost the total addressable market for Amazon and other companies like Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc. that draw a lot of ad dollars, Nowak argued. He increased his Amazon ad revenue estimates for this year and next, predicting that the company’s sponsored-product revenue will grow at a 54% annual rate from 2016 to 2019. Amazon shares are up 65% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 is up 24%.
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From:: Stock Market News
The Japanese yen strengthened against the U.S. dollar on Friday, as Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda affirmed the central bank would continue to support the Japanese economy through monetary easing. Kuroda also said that inflation was finally getting close to the BOJ’s target of 2% and that there would be a slight pickup in inflation expectations. Japan is understood to have the loosest approach to monetary policy among the developed economies, and is expected to be one of the last to join the trend of policy normalization. The dollar last bought ¥108.95, down from ¥109.41. The pair touched its lowest level since September on Thursday.
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From:: Stock Market News