Foreclosures | Mortgages | Financing
More than $100 million in formerly government-insured mortgages secured by the vacant properties of deceased borrowers are being auctioned.
The offering from the Department of Housing and Urban Development is for approximately 650 notes that have an aggregate unpaid principal balance of $136 million.
The residential loans are first liens secured by vacant one-to-four-unit properties. The last surviving borrowers on the loans are deceased.
From:: Financing
Legislation that could roll back some of the more burdensome provisions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act could be approved as early as this week.
S. 2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, was approved in December by the Senate Banking Committee.
While many liberal Democrats are fighting the Senate bill, a dozen mostly moderate Democrats have co-sponsored the legislation.
From:: Financing
Oil prices settled a few cents higher on Tuesday to notch a third-straight session climb, buoyed by weakness in the U.S. dollar, continued declines in OPEC production and winter weather on the East Coast. Pressure from expectations for a weekly climb in U.S. crude stockpiles and rising domestic production, however, nearly offset the price gains. April WTI crude tacked on 3 cents, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $62.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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From:: Stock Market News
Shares of General Electric Co. rallied 1.1% in afternoon trade, putting it on track to post a third-straight gain. The last time the stock rose for three-straight days was the three-session streak ending Jan. 11, 2018. Following the end of that streak, GE announced a $6.2 billion after-tax charge related to its insurance portfolio. In the current streak, the stock has run up 4.0% since it closed last Thursday at $14.02, the lowest close since July 6, 2010. Earlier Tuesday, GE’s transportation business announced announced the expansion of multimodal data connectivity capabilities with a collaboration with project44. GE’s stock has now shed 16.5% year to date, making it the worst performer among Dow Jones Industrial Average components for that time frame, while the Dow has gained 0.6% over the same time.
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From:: Stock Market News
Facebook Inc. has been sued by BlackBerry Ltd. over patent infringement related to several of BlackBerry’s mobile messaging-related technologies, according to court documents filed Tuesday. BlackBerry stock is up nearly 1% to $12.51 in midday trading; Facebook stock is up a fraction to $180.60. The complaint filed by BlackBerry asks for an unspecified amount in damages as well as a court order preventing Facebook from continuing to use the seven main technologies brought up by the lawsuit. A BlackBerry spokeswoman said in an emailed statement that it has a “strong claim Facebook has infringed on our intellectual property, and after several years of dialogue, we also have an obligation to our shareholders to pursue appropriate legal remedies.” For its part, Facebook said it plans to contest the claims: “Blackberry’s suit sadly reflects the current state of its messaging business. Having abandoned its efforts to innovate, Blackberry is now looking to tax the innovation of others. We intend to fight,” Facebook deputy general counsel Paul Grewal said in a statement. Facebook stock has gained 31% in the past year, as the S&P 500 index rose 15%. Blackberry stock has gained 78% in the last 12 months.
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From:: Stock Market News
Target Corp. said Tuesday that it is expanding its delivery and shipping services and raising its minimum wage to $12 in 2018, part of the effort to raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2020. Two-day shipping will now be available on hundreds of thousands of items. Drive Up, a service that brings online orders out to shoppers who drive to their local store for pickup, will expand from 50 to nearly 1,000 stores by the end of the year. A service that delivers in-store purchases to customers’ homes the same day will expand from four New York City stores to all five boroughs and select stores in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington DC. The retailer also plans to expand its same-day Shipt service to the majority of Target stores and all major markets by the 2018 holiday season. And Target Restock, which delivers overnight, will expand to 40 markets, covering about three-quarters of the U.S. population. Target will open about 30 stores this year, and plans to remodel more than 300 around the country, with a focus on large metropolitan areas. Target is hosting its financial community event on Tuesday and announced earnings during the premarket hours. Target shares are down 5.4% in Tuesday trading, but are up 26.7% for the past year, outpacing the S&P 500 index , which is up 14.6% for the last 12 months.
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From:: Stock Market News
The New York Stock Exchange was fined $14 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission and charged with regulatory failures in connection with multiple episodes, including several disruptive market events. According to the SEC’s order, the violations include erroneously implementing a market-wide regulatory halt, negligently misrepresenting stock prices as “automated” despite extensive system issues ahead of a total shutdown of two of the exchanges, and applying price collars during unusual market volatility on Aug. 24, 2015, without a rule in effect to permit them. The SEC also said the NYSE broke rules on business continuity and disaster recovery. NYSE, NYSE Arca, and NYSE American — all units of Intercontinental Exchange — neither admitted nor denied the findings.
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From:: Stock Market News
U.S. prosecutors have asked a federal judge to sentence former drug-company executive Martin Shkreli to at least 15 years in prison, saying in a memo Tuesday that Shkreli has shown no remorse and has put profits and his public image before all else, according to media reports. Shkreli, convicted in August of defrauding hedge-fund investors, is to be sentenced on Friday, and his lawyers, saying he was a changed man, had asked for a sentence of less than two years. Shkreli on Monday was ordered to forfeit nearly $7.4 million in assets, including exclusive music albums and a Picasso painting. Shkreli first came to fame for buying the rights to a life-saving drug and then immediately raising the price to $750 a pill from $13.50.
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From:: Stock Market News
Gold prices climbed Tuesday to mark their highest settlement in two-and-a-half weeks. A sizable decline in the U.S. dollar, as concerns surrounding a potential trade war and tensions between North and South Korea appeared to ease, provided a lift to dollar-denominated prices of the yellow metal. April gold climbed $15.30, or 1.2%, to settle at $1,335.20 an ounce. That was the lowest finish since Feb. 16, according to FactSet data.
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From:: Stock Market News
The U.S. Energy Information Administration lifted its 2018 and 2019 forecasts on U.S. crude-oil production, according to the agency’s monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook report released Tuesday. The EIA raised its 2018 domestic crude production forecast by 1% to 10.7 million barrels per day. It also lifted its 2019 output forecast by 0.8% to 11.27 million barrels a day. The EIA, meanwhile, cut its 2018 views on West Texas Intermediate crude prices by 0.2% to $58.17 and Brent by 0.4% to $62.13 a barrel. It forecast an average 2018 natural-gas price of $2.99 per million British thermal units, down 6.6% from February’s outlook. April WTI crude was down 8 cents, or 0.1%, at $62.49 a barrel. May Brent added 20 cents, or 0.3%, to $65.74.
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From:: Stock Market News