Refis Lead Recovery in Weekly Mortgage Business

New residential lending activity during the past seven days took a big leap from the holiday week. Leading the week-over-week improvement was surging refinance business.

An indication of upcoming mortgage originations that is based on average average per-user rate-lock volume at OpenClose, the U.S. Mortgage Market Index from Mortgage Daily, was 137 in the week ended Dec. 1.

Compared to the week that included Thanksgiving, the index, which is not adjusted for seasonal variations, shot up 22 percent. It was also stronger than in the same seven days last year, rising by 6 percent.


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From:: Financing

PayPal-owned TIO’s data breach affects 1.6 million customers

PayPal Holdings Inc. said late Friday it has found evidence of a data breach in TIO Networks, a payment processing company PayPal bought in July. The unauthorized access could have compromised “personally identifiable information” for approximately 1.6 million customers, including TIO customers and customers of TIO billers. PayPal said the its platform was not impacted, as the TIO systems run separate, PayPal’s customers’ data remains secure. PayPal halted TIO operations on Nov. 10 as part of an ongoing investigation. The company said it has begun working with the companies it services to notify potentially impacted people, and with a consumer-credit reporting agency to provide free credit monitoring memberships for those affected. People involved in the data breach will be contacted directly and receive instructions to sign up for monitoring, PayPal said. Shares of PayPal were flat in late trading after ending the regular session down 0.6%.

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.

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From:: Stock Market News

Chemours stock erases sharp early loss to close higher after 5-fold dividend hike, new stock buyback plan

Shares of Chemours Co. used a late rally to close up 0.9% Friday, erasing earlier sharp losses, after the chemistry-based technology company announced a more than five-fold increase in its dividend and a new share repurchase agreement at its first investor day since the spinoff from Dupont. The company raised its quarterly dividend to 17 cents a share from 3 cents, payable March 15 to shareholders of record on Feb. 15. The company also authorized a $500 million share buyback program, which extends through 2020. Based on Friday’s closing price of $51.84, that could represent about 5.2% of the shares outstanding. The company said the new capital allocation strategy comes after the completion of transformation plan, which helped lower its debt position to a leverage ratio of two-times adjusted EBITDA, below its previously-announced leverage target of three-times. Earlier Friday, the stock fell as much as 5.2%, as the company’s 2018 free cash flow target of $500 million to $600 million was below some analyst expectations. The stock has now tacked on 3.7% over the past three months, but has more than doubled year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 18% this 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.

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From:: Stock Market News

Exxon to combine refining, marketing divisions

Exxon Mobil Corp. said late Friday it will combine its refining and marketing divisions into a company called ExxonMobil Fuels & Lubricants Co. By combining ExxonMobil Refining and Supply Co. and ExxonMobil Fuels, Lubricants & Specialties Marketing Co., Exxon “will achieve further integration to improve decision making and enhance performance in the market. The improvements will help the company to better respond to the needs of its customers and compete more effectively,” it said in a statement. Bryan Milton, president of ExxonMobil Fuels, Lubricants & Specialties Marketing Co., has been appointed president of the new division. Shares of Exxon fell 0.1% in the late session after ending the regular trading day up 0.2%.

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.

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From:: Stock Market News

Exxon to combine refining, marketing divisions

Exxon Mobil Corp. said late Friday it will combine its refining and marketing divisions into a company called ExxonMobil Fuels & Lubricants Co. By combining ExxonMobil Refining and Supply Co. and ExxonMobil Fuels, Lubricants & Specialties Marketing Co., Exxon “will achieve further integration to improve decision making and enhance performance in the market. The improvements will help the company to better respond to the needs of its customers and compete more effectively,” it said in a statement. Bryan Milton, president of ExxonMobil Fuels, Lubricants & Specialties Marketing Co., has been appointed president of the new division. Shares of Exxon fell 0.1% in the late session after ending the regular trading day up 0.2%.

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.

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From:: Stock Market News

Stocks fall on Flynn news, but end well off session lows

Stocks fell Friday after former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents and said he would cooperate with a special counsel probe into possible Russian interference with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. But hopes the Senate would pass a tax bill were credited with helping stocks to erase much of the decline. The S&P 500 ended 0.2% lower near 2,642.22, but saw a weekly rise of 1.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended around 41 points lower after having fallen more than 300 points earlier in the session. The Dow saw a 2.9% weekly rise, its strongest of 2017. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.4% to close near 6,848, losing 0.6% for the week.

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.

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From:: Stock Market News

Fannie’s Multifamily Lates Climb to 7-Month High

Monthly secondary marketing activity at the Federal National Mortgage Association turned lower. In its commercial business, delinquency deteriorated on apartment loans.

As of Oct. 31, Washington-based Fannie Mae’s book of business book was $3.1998 trillion, according to its Monthly Summary October 2017.

The total was comprised of an $0.2358 trillion investment portfolio and $2.9641 trillion in outstanding mortgage-backed securities and other guarantees.


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From:: Financing

U.S. oil ends higher, but marks biggest weekly loss in about 2 months

U.S. oil prices settled higher Friday, finding support a day after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major producers agreed to extend their production-cut agreement to the end of next year. However, concerns about growing output from producers who aren’t part of the deal, particularly the U.S., helped pull prices down by 1% for the week. That was the biggest weekly loss since the first week of October. January West Texas Intermediate crude rose 96 cents, or 1.7%, to settle at $58.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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.

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From:: Stock Market News

Uber security executives resign amid alleged corporate spying, data breach

Amid allegations of corporate espionage and a delayed disclosure of a massive breach, two senior Uber Technologies Inc. security executives have resigned, and a third has taken medical leave, according to Reuters. The news of executives exiting the ride-hailing giant comes days after a stunning revelation during a federal civil lawsuit launched by Alphabet Inc. subsidiary Waymo which alleges a former Uber executive stole 14,000 confidential documents that Uber used to bolster its self-driving vehicle technology. Earlier this week, a former Uber executive testified in federal court about the existence of a unit within Uber called Market Analytics that, among other things, was charged with obtaining trade secrets and other competitive intelligence on rival firms. In November, the company also disclosed a data breach that affected 57 million driver and rider accounts and a $100,000 ransom payment to the hackers, which also included agreements not to make the breach public. Uber concealed the breach for more than a 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.

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From:: Stock Market News

Top House Democrat concerned DOJ probe into Deutsche Bank’s Russian trades has gone dormant

Rep. Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California and the ranking minority member of the House Financial Services Committee, on Friday said she was concerned about recent press reports a Justice Department criminal investigation into Russian trades made by Deutsche Bank has “gone dormant.” In a letter to the department, Waters demanded to know the present status of the investigation. Early this year, Deutsche Bank paid over $600 million to settle with U.S. and U.K. bank regulators over a scheme that involved more than 2,400 pairs of “mirrored” trades that regulators said lacked economic purpose and could have been used to move money out of Russia.

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.

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From:: Stock Market News