Foreclosures | Mortgages | Financing
The mortgage subsidiary of home builder Lennar Corp. is being investigated over its handling of the lending process on government-insured loans.
A subpoena has been issued by the U.S. Department of Justice against the Miami-based company’s home-lending unit, Eagle Home Mortgage LLC.
At issue is the adequacy of certain underwriting and quality-control processes on residential loans that were insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
From:: Financing
Shares of Microsoft Corp. shot up 1.3% toward a record high in midday trade Thursday, after some upbeat comments by analysts ahead of the software giant’s fiscal second-quarter results due out next week. The stock was still below Wednesday’s all-time intraday high of $93.43, but was well above Tuesday’s record close of $91.90. J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Murphy raised his stock price target to $87 from $78. He said a survey of 30 Microsoft partners produced “healthy” results and had upbeat outlooks for 2018, and increasingly viewed Microsoft’s Azure cloud business has moving closer to parity with Amazon.com Inc.’s AWS in terms of technical capability and consumption. Separately, Canaccord Genuity analyst Richard Davis said it’s “reasonable” to expect Microsoft’s stock to appreciate between 10% and 20% a year for the next five years, which puts the company on a path to be the first trillion-dollar valued enterprise software stock. Microsoft is currently the third-most valuable company in the S&P 500 with a market capitalization of $717.3 billion. Microsoft’s stock has rallied 18.3% over the past three months, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 has rallied 14.8% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed 13.3%.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
From:: Stock Market News
New home sales last year soared to the highest level in a decade. In stark contrast to existing home sales, the inventory of new homes for sale was the highest in eight years.
The sale of newly built single-family houses for all of 2017 amounted to 608,000 properties — the strongest year since 2007 when the total was 775,000.
During 2016, the sale of new U.S. residential properties worked out to a downwardly revised 561,000 — at the time also the most new home sales since 2007.
From:: Financing
Tesla Inc. said Thursday it will post its fourth-quarter and full-year 2017 results after the bell on Feb. 7. A webcast with analysts follows at 2:30 p.m. Pacific, the Silicon Valley car maker said in a statement. Analysts polled by FactSet expect Tesla to report an adjusted loss of $3.04 a share on sales of $3.3 billion in the quarter, which would compare with an adjusted loss of 69 cents a share on sales of $2.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016. Tesla shares rose 0.2% on Thursday.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
From:: Stock Market News
The Dow Jones Transportation Average tumbled 1.5% in morning trade Thursday, with 19 of its 20 components trading lower, bucking the 137-point, or 0.5%, rally in the Dow Jones Industrial Average , amid sharp declines in airline and railroad stocks. That adds to the Dow transports 1.4% tumble on Wednesday, which also came despite a 41-point, or 0.2%, advance in the Dow industrials. The last time the Dow transports fell at least 1% in back-to-back sessions while the Dow industrials rose for both sessions was in April 2007, or a little less than 6-months before the October 2007 bull market peak. Back then, the Dow transports fell 1.29% on April 26, 2007 and dropped 1.04% on April 27, while the Dow industrials gained 0.1% on both days. The century-old Dow Theory of market analysis suggests that the Dow transports and the Dow industrials need to trend in the same direction for a long-term trend to have staying power. The idea being, if transportation companies aren’t delivering what industrial companies are making, it could warn of economic weakness.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
From:: Stock Market News
While home-equity loans and home-equity lines of credit can have lower rates than personal loans, the new tax law could lessen the benefit for some borrowers.
Before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law in December, the demand for home-equity products was already on the decline at some banks.
Under the new law, borrowers can no longer deduct interest owed on HELs if they use the money for purposes other than home renovations or property purchases.
From:: Financing
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Thursday that domestic supplies of natural gas fell by 288 billion cubic feet for the week ended Jan. 19. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts forecast a decrease of 272 billion, while the five-year average withdrawal is 164 billion. Total stocks now stand at 2.296 trillion cubic feet, down 519 billion cubic feet from a year ago, and 486 billion below the five-year average, the government said. February natural gas was down 2.9 cents, or 0.8%, at $3.48 per million British thermal units, up from $3.464 before the data.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
From:: Stock Market News
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Thursday that domestic supplies of natural gas fell by 288 billion cubic feet for the week ended Jan. 19. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts forecast a decrease of 272 billion, while the five-year average withdrawal is 164 billion. Total stocks now stand at 2.296 trillion cubic feet, down 519 billion cubic feet from a year ago, and 486 billion below the five-year average, the government said. February natural gas was down 2.9 cents, or 0.8%, at $3.48 per million British thermal units, up from $3.464 before the data.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
From:: Stock Market News
Caterpillar Inc.’s stock has transformed into a headwind for the broader stock market from a tailwind, as the stock took a dive into negative territory right after the opening bell. The stock was up as much as 2.8% when it opened at its intraday high of $173.10, but was recently down 1.4% to pace the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s decliners. The stock was adding about 33 points to the Dow’s price, which was up 133.56 points at its intraday high. But Caterpillar’s stock is now shaving 16 points off the Dow, which is up 91 points. The stock’s earlier gain followed better-than-expected earnings and an upbeat outlook. Caterpillar’s post-earnings conference call with analysts is scheduled for 11 a.m. ET.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
From:: Stock Market News
Department of Housing and Urban Development Thursday announced “a top-to-bottom review of its manufactured housing rules” in order to determine whether existing regulations are stifling the production of manufactured homes given what HUD calls “a critical need for affordable housing.” The step follows President Trump’s “Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs” executive order, and seeks to identify HUD rules that may “inhibit job creation or impose costs that exceed the public benefit,” the department said in a release. HUD will accept public comments for the next 30 days about the impacts of existing or planned regulations for manufactured housing.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
From:: Stock Market News