Foreclosures | Mortgages | Financing
As SoFi waits for a decision on its bank charter application, the request is drumming up a lot of criticism. On top of groups already writing letters in opposition to the move, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif, added her name to the list of people questioning the application. Does this kill SoFi’s chance to ever be a bank? …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
The chairman of Cherry Creek Mortgage, the largest mortgage lender in Colorado, resigned late last week after the company began offering health benefits to same-sex couples. Cherry Creek announced late Thursday that it will now offer health benefits to same-sex couples, the same day that the company’s chairman, Wil Armstrong, resigned from the company with immediate effect. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
After news of Gilead Sciences Inc.’s about $11 billion acquisition of Kite Pharma Inc. , Juno Therapeutics Inc. shares surged 16.3%, Bluebird Bio Inc. shares surged 9.7% and Cellectis SA ADR shares surged 11.8% in extremely heavy midday trade Monday. The Kite Pharma acquisition marks a large investment by Gilead into a cancer treatment called chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, or CAR-T, which uses a patient’s immune T-cells and re-engineers them to better fight cancer. Juno, Bluebird and Cellectis are other biotech companies working in CAR-T. BTIF analyst Dane Leone upgraded Juno on Monday, adding, “we continue to be skeptical of JUNO’s current competitive positioning, but upgrade our ranking to Neutral from Sell, as there is not a near term catalyst to offset the positive tailwind for the entire CAR T space.” Though there has been speculation about Celgene — which owns about 10% of Juno’s current shares outstanding — acquiring Juno, “we would be surprised” by a full acquisition, Leone said, since “at this juncture with emerging overlap in Multiple Myeloma and third to market status in CD19 hematological malignancies, we struggle to find a rationale for Celgene wanting to fully own Juno.” Kite Pharma shares surged 28% in extremely heavy morning trade. Shares have surged 144% over the last three months, compared with a 1% rise in the S&P 500 .
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 American Civil Liberties Union said Monday it has filed a lawsuit with a Maryland court challenging President Donald Trump’s “cruel policy’ in banning transgender people from serving in the U.S. military. The suit was filed on the part of Petty Officer First Class Brock Stone, who has served in the U.S. Navy for 11 years and done stints in Afghanistan, along with other transgender members of the armed forces. Trump first announced his intention for the ban in a series of tweets on July 26, before directing the Pentagon to implement it last Friday. The suit claims that the ban is unconstitutional and denies transgender people their rights. Trump tweeted that he had made the decision after consulting with military officials, but news reports indicated that the Secretary of Defense and others were taken by surprise, said the suit. The ACLU said Trump’s actual motivations were political and aimed at accommodating legislators “who bear animus and moral disapproval toward men and women who are transgender,” with a goal of getting the votes for a spending bill that includes funds for his planned border wall.
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
Following a lawsuit filed by a former employee over the loss of health insurance coverage for her and her spouse, the chairman of a Colorado-based mortgage banker is out.
Cherry Creek Mortgage Co. and UnitedHealthcare were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed by Judith Dominguez, a former employee in California.
The lawsuit alleges that Dominguez and her spouse, who were enrolled in the Greenwood Village, Colorado-based firm’s health insurance plan in 2016, were denied re-enrollment at the end of the year.
From:: Financing
Shares of online travel company Expedia Inc. tumbled 4.5% in early trade Monday, on news that Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi is to become next CEO of Uber. The news is “an incremental negative for Expedia, in our view, given Mr. Khosrowshahi’s hand in Expedia’s success to date,” SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analysts wrote in a note. “While such an outcome would create some near term leadership vacuum at the CEO level, we do not expect to see a material negative hit to the business’s performance given the deep executive bench and the organizational set-up of the company.” Khosrowshahi has held the role for more than a decade and is broadly credited with positioning the company as a leading player in its field. However, the business heads at its key units operate with some independence in day-to-day decision making, meaning the business is unlikely to see disruption, the analysts wrote. SunTrust views Chief Financial Officer Mark Okerstrom and Aman Bhutani, who is president of the brand, as front runners for the CEO spot. The former has been at Expedia since 2006, while the latter has been there for seven years. Shares have gained 26% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 9%.
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
Time Warner Inc.’s flagship cable network HBO said on Monday that it has launched a new series tied to its most popular show “Game of Thrones.” HBO has created a seven-part post-season series titled “The Game Revealed” that will give fans of arguably TV’s most popular show a behind-the-scenes look at how the penultimate seventh season of “Game of Thrones” came together. The series will be available only on HBO Now, HBO Go, HBO On Demand and its affiliate partners. The first episode was released on Monday, with exclusive interviews with cast and crew, and is available for free on Facebook and YouTube. Subsequent episodes will be released weekly on Monday, and will be available only to HBO subscribers.
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
By Beth McGuire
For 20-year industry veteran Nick Bailey, his appointment as president and CEO of Century 21 Real Estate LLC has brought him full circle—back to the place where it all began when he jumped in feet first to the buying and selling side of the real estate business. In this exclusive interview, Bailey shares how his past has set the stage for success as he takes the reins at CENTURY 21.
Paige Tepping: Please provide a brief overview of your background in the industry and how you ended up where you are today as President and CEO of Century 21 Real Estate.
Nick Bailey: My real estate career began 21 years ago this month, at CENTURY 21 no less, but what truly kickstarted my career was my decision to begin investing in real estate at the age of 17. After becoming licensed at 21, I listed and sold for a short time before becoming a broker. From there, I had the opportunity to join RE/MAX world headquarters, where I spent the next 11 years. This led me to my industry relations position at Market Leader, which was acquired by Trulia before being acquired by Zillow—where I’ve been for the past five years. I’ve always been interested in the ownership side of the business, and my experience in working with brokerages and helping companies grow both their business and agent count has come full circle with my recent appointment at C21®. Throughout my tenure at Zillow Group, I’ve been able to focus on the consumer side of the equation while threading together what’s needed for brokerage partnerships and creating a good consumer search experience, providing an interesting lens to look through as we build on the market momentum and global growth of the iconic CENTURY 21 brand.
PT: In what ways will your background help you in your new position?
NB: First and foremost, I believe the agent is the most important component of a real estate transaction. By no means has the real estate process gotten any easier over the years, but rather, it’s gotten more complex. At the same time, my experience working on the consumer side at Zillow Group was instrumental in opening my eyes to the fact that we’re in a consumer movement that’s defined by the need for additional transparency in everything we do. And I don’t just mean real estate. Consumers are craving transparency when it comes to how they purchase retail products online and their experiences within everyday life. The process of buying or selling a home is complicated, and it’s frustrating for both buyers and sellers, but it’s important to remember that their experience is dependent on the process the agent provides. While some agents are good at doing this, which is awesome for the industry, moving forward, I want to take the experience of what consumers are demanding and what agents need to make the consumer happy and have this be our focus. To …read more
From:: Real Estate News
Shares of insurance giant Travelers Cos. Inc. and investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on Monday were yanking the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower in early trade. The fallout of now-Tropical storm Harvey, which has submerged much of the Houston area in what is expected to be 50 inches of rain. That has helped to whack insurance companies, while growing doubts about additional rate hikes in 2017, has pressured bank shares. Travelers’s stock was off 2.8%, or about $3.52, while Goldman’s shares were down about 0.9% at $1.87, translating to a nearly 40-point retreat in the price-weighted Dow industrials . A $1 move in any of the Dow equates to a 6.84-point swing in the blue-chip average. Overall, the Dow reversed modest gains at the open, to trade down 25 points, or 0.1%, at 21,788, while the S&P 500 index was flat at 2,443, and the Nasdaq Composite Index traded 0.2% higher.
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
Shares of online travel company Expedia Inc. tumbled 4% in early trade Monday, on news that Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi is to become next CEO of Uber. The news is “an incremental negative for Expedia, in our view, given Mr. Khosrowshahi’s hand in Expedia’s success to date,” SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analysts wrote in a note. “While such an outcome would create some near term leadership vacuum at the CEO level, we do not expect to see a material negative hit to the business’s performance given the deep executive bench and the organizational set-up of the company.” Khosrowshahi has held the role for more than a decade and is broadly credited with positioning the company as a leading player in its field. However, the business heads at its key units operate with some independence in day-to-day decision making, meaning the business is unlikely to see disruption, the analysts wrote. SunTrust views Chief Financial Officer Mark Okerstrom and Aman Bhutani, who is president of the brand, as front runners for the CEO spot. The former has been at Expedia since 2006, while the latter has been there for seven years. Shares have gained 26% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 9%.
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