Foreclosures | Mortgages | Financing
While industry-wide annual mortgage originations are forecasted to retreat again, there are some lenders that are driving up loan volume.
Fannie Mae’s most-recent forecast had last year’s single-family loan originations by the nation’s home lenders coming in at at $1.812 trillion.
That was less than the $2.052 trillion in home-lending activity during 2016. This year’s originations are expect to fall further — to $1.731 trillion.
From:: Financing
General Electric Co.’s stock slumped 1.7% in afternoon trade Monday, to be the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s biggest decliner, after J.P. Morgan analyst C. Stephen Tusa cut his price target, saying there were “too many risks” to change his bearish view on the industrial conglomerate. He after taking a “fresh” look into GE’s potential this year, after the stock’s extremely poor relative performance last year, he said the consensus analyst outlook for earnings per share of about $1 is “reasonable,” but remains the “lowest quality $1 of EPS in the sector.” He wrote in a note to clients that the consensus presumption that free cash flow “can grow meaningfully from here banks on working capital remaining positive…, restructuring collapsing…, and an opaque, negative ‘other account,’ including contract assets, getting significantly less negative.” Tusa reiterated his underweight rating, and cut his price target to $16 from $17. The stock had rallied 6.8% amid a 5-session win streak through Friday, the longest such streak since February 2017, and the biggest five-day gain since November 2016. In 2017, the stock had plunged 44.8%, the worst one-year performance since 2008, while the Dow rallied 25.1%.
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
Celgene Corp. shares shed 1.9% in active midday trade Monday, after the company released preliminary fourth-quarter and 2017 earnings results, which are expected to beat Wall Street expectations, and its plans for a $1.1 billion upfront acquisition of the biotech Impact Biomedicines. The company also expects revenue of $14.4 billion to $14.8 billion in 2018, compared with the FactSet consensus of $14.8 billion, which could explain the stock decline “as the midpoint would be slightly lighter than consensus,” Mizuho analyst Salim Syed said. Speaking at the J.P. Morgan Health Care Conference in San Francisco on Monday, company management said it had encountered “some choppy weather, let’s say” in 2017 but emphasized its long-term trajectory. Celgene expects to launch 10 potential blockbuster drugs in the next several years, according to a company presentation, naming such therapies as ozanimod, fedratinib, JCAR017 and luspatercept, among others. Celgene shares have dropped 26% over the last three months, compared with a 7.6% rise in the S&P 500 and a 10.9% rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average .
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From:: Stock Market News
Target Corp. said Monday that it will launch its first private label of 2018 next month: Universal Thread, a women’s lifestyle brand focused on denim. The line will include tops, dresses, accessories and shoes at prices ranging from $5 to about $40, which is, on average, up to 10% lower than current items. Sizes will start at 00 and run through 26W, the first time the company has launched a brand with a range of sizes this broad, Mark Tritton, Target’s chief merchandising officer, said in a post on the retailer’s blog. Target announced plans last year to roll out more than a dozen private brands. Among those that have already launched are A New Day and Project 62. Target shares are nearly flat in Monday trading, and up 16.6% for the last three months. The S&P 500 index is up 7.6% for the past three months.
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From:: Stock Market News
Shares of Ambarella Inc. fell 1% in morning trade Monday, in the wake of GoPro Inc.’s revenue warning and announcement that it was exiting the drone business. The maker of chips for cameras in drones said in its latest quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that GoPro accounted for 19% of its fiscal 2017 revenue. GoPro’s stock plunged 21%, the biggest one-day selloff since the action-camera maker went public in June 2014, after the company said it will exit the drone business because the “hostile regulatory environment” in the U.S. and Europe make the aerial market “untenable.” GoPro also said it was cutting its workforce by more than 20% and provided a fourth-quarter revenue outlook that was well below expectations. Ambarella’s stock has run up 27% over the past three months, while GoPro shares have plunged 40% and the S&P 500 has gained 7.6%. Earlier Monday, Amabarella introduced a new camera chip, for use in the home monitoring, automotive, drone and wearable camera markets.
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From:: Stock Market News
The largest exchange-traded fund to track the health-care sector fell on Monday, dropping as the biggest declining industry of the day by far. The Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF was down 0.8%, its biggest one-day percentage drop since Dec. 14. The fund is coming off a four-day rally, and it hit a record on Friday. Biotechnology companies were the biggest drags on the sector on Monday. Celgene Corp. fell 3.2% after it agreed to buy blood-disease biotechnology company Impact Biomedicines for as much as $7 billion. Separately, Biogen Inc. shares fell 3.9% while those for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals was down 3.1%. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF fell 0.8% on Monday. Thus far this year, the health-care fund is up 2.3%, compared with the 2.6% rise of the S&P 500 . The S&P was unchanged in Monday trading.
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From:: Stock Market News
Shares of Caterpillar Inc. rallied 1.4% in morning trade Monday toward a record high, enough to pace the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s gainers, after the mining and construction equipment maker was upgraded at J.P. Morgan. The stock’s price gain of $2.25 added about 15.5 points to the price of the Dow, which was down 38 points. J.P. Morgan analyst Ann Duignan raised her rating to overweight from neutral and boosted her stock price target to $200 from $144, which ties her for the highest target among the 25 analysts surveyed by FactSet. Although the stock already soared 70% in 2017, the second-best calendar-year performance in the stock’s history, according to FactSet, Duignan said she believes there is still “significant upside” to the stock. She said among the “notable catalysts” for the stock, the recent tax reform legislation should extend the cycle for Caterpillar’s North America construction business and a lower tax rate supports higher through-cycle FCF. In addition, Duignan believes Caterpillar’s resource business in si the second year of a 10-year upcycle.
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From:: Stock Market News
Shares of Humana Inc. dropped 2.5% in morning trade Monday, to pull back from the previous session’s record close, after the health care company provided 2018 membership growth estimates. Following results of the annual enrollment period, the company raised its net membership growth estimate for individual Medicare Advantage products to 180,000 to 200,000 members from an initial estimate of 150,000 to 180,000 member, as a result of higher-than-expected retention of existing members. For prescription drug plans, however, membership is estimated to decline by 280,000 to 320,000 members. The decline is primarily a result of the loss of auto assign members in Florida and South Carolina, due to pricing over the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) low income benchmark, continued membership declines in its Enhanced Plan and “significantly” lower-than-anticipated growth in the co-branded plan with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. given low-priced competitor offerings. Separately, the company affirmed its adjusted 2017 earnings-per-share guidance of about $11.60, which compares with the FactSet consensus of $11.63, and said it expects the tax reform legislation to reduce fourth-quarter net earnings by about $160 million. The stock has gained 4.4% over the past three months, while the SPDR Health Care Select Sector ETF has tacked on 2.3% and the S&P 500 has gained 7.6%.
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From:: Stock Market News
Arconic Inc.’s stock fell 0.4% in morning trade Monday, to pull back from an 11-month high, after the aluminum company disclosed that it was freezing its defined-benefit pension plan for 7,900 employees. The company, which was spun off from Alcoa in late 2016, said benefit accruals for future service and compensation will cease as of April 1. Service earned after March 31 will count towards eligibility for early retirement. The company expects to record a liability decrease of $140 million in the first quarter, as a result of the cut in future benefits. The stock had closed Friday at the highest level since Feb. 22, 2017. It has rallied 8.8% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has gained 7.5%.
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 Industrial Average on Monday was threatening to end lower for the first time in 2018, as shares of components Boeing Co., Walt Disney Co., and UnitedHealth Group Inc., weighed on the benchmark. The Dow most recently was down about 30 points, with Boeing’s shares contributing about 13 points to that early decline. Shares of UnitedHealth were exacting about the same point drag on the blue-chip gauge, as was a decline in Disney . A $1 move in any one of the Dow’s 30 components can equate to a 6.83-point swing in the price-weighted average. More broadly, the S&P 500 index was down 0.1% at 2,740, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was trading little changed at 7,134. The three main equity indexes on Friday closed out a stellar, albeit holiday-shortened early start to 2018, carving a trio of all-time highs and registering four-straight days of gains to start the year.
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