U.K. Serious Fraud Office investigating suspected corruption by Rio Tinto in Guinea

The U.K. Serious Fraud Office said Monday it has opened an investigation into “suspected corruption” by mining giant Rio Tinto Plc in the Republic of Guinea. The SFO, which is responsible for dealing with fraud, bribery and corruption, said the investigation is looking into the company, its employees and others associated with it. Rio Tinto’s American Depositary Receipts were down about 1% in New York, but are up about 13% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained about 10%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Scientific Games Corp. shares soaring after revenue beat

Shares of Scientific Games Corporation were soaring 22.%% Monday afternoon after the company beat second-quarter revenue expectations. Scientific Games, which provides products and services that power lotteries and gambling-related games, reported a net loss of $39.1 million, or a loss of 44 cents per share, compared to a loss of $51.7 million, or 59 cents per share, in the year-earlier period. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected a loss per share of 41 cents. Revenue was $766.3 million, up from $729.2 million in the year-earlier period and above the FactSet consensus of $748.6 million. Shares of Scientific Games have gained 50% in the past three months and 137% year-to-date, compared with the S&P 500’s gains of 4% and 10% respectively.

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From:: Stock Market News

Multifamily CMBS 60-Day Rate Surges

The rate of late payments on securitized commercial real estate loans backed by apartment buildings soared more than a hundred basis points last month.

Conduit loans included in commercial mortgage-backed securities had a 7.07 percent sixty-day delinquency rate as of June 30.

That was a 10-basis-point ascension from the end of the previous month. Loans securitized in 2007 were largely responsible for the worsened performance.


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From:: Financing

PropertyManager.com Is Moving to a New Home

By Aimee Miller

Dear loyal readers,

When we started PropertyManager.com almost 7 years ago, we had a simple goal: to educate and inform property managers on important industry trends, technology innovations, and tips & tricks to make your days more efficient and your businesses more successful. So we decided to create a destination where we can share our unique perspectives, educational content, and best practices on all kinds of topics to help you grow and better manage your property management business.

Today, as I announce that PropertyManager.com will close its digital doors next month, I am wowed by how many people we have helped through this website over the years. I want to thank each and every one of our guest writers and loyal readers for building PropertyManager.com into the resource it is today.

You might be asking, where am I going to get all my informative posts about property management now?! The great news is you can still find all the great educational articles you know and love over at the AppFolio Property Manager Blog. If you haven’t already, we invite you to join the amazing community of property managers over at our LinkedIn PropertyManager.com group. Let’s keep the conversation going!

Thank you,

Aimee Miller, CMO, AppFolio

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From:: Property Management

UBS downgrades Goldman on ‘limited confidence’ for revenue growth

UBS analyst Brennan Hawken on Monday downgraded Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to neutral from buy, noting that investors had priced in an “inflection” point in the bank’s Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities division that might not be forthcoming. “Recent weak results could rebound,” Hawken wrote, but added that 2018 consensus estimates imply a rebound of about 25%. UBS raised its 2017 estimate to account for the Q2 earnings beat, but cut its 2018 estimate to $19.30 per share, below the FactSet consensus of $20.16. “Goldman continues to run a premium franchise but we have limited confidence in predicting when their trading revenues will recover,” Hawken wrote. The stock is down 8.6% for the year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 10.2%. The mean rating among analysts polled by FactSet is overweight.

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From:: Stock Market News

Weekly Mortgage Market Index Retreats, Jumbo Up

Loan originators, except those who originate jumbo mortgages, were less busy this past week with residential lending activity. Home purchase financing took the biggest hit.

For the seven-day period that finished on July 21, the U.S. Mortgage Market Index from Mortgage Daily, an origination forecasting tool based on rate-lock volume at OpenClose, was 152.

Compared to the preceding week, the index — which is not adjusted for seasonal factors — retreated 12 percent. A 14 percent decline was recorded versus the same week one year prior.


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From:: Financing

Dow slumps as Wall Street focuses on earnings; Fed ahead

The U.S. stock market opened lower on Monday to start a week packed with corporate earnings releases and a midweek meeting of the Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading 0.2% lower at 21,542, the S&P 500 index was off about 0.2% at 2,468. The Nasdaq Composite Index , meanwhile, was trading flat at 6,388. Wall Street investors were paying attention to weakness in the dollar , and conversely strength in the euro . A weaker dollar tends to give a boost to multinational companies selling goods and services abroad, while a strengthening euro can provide a headwind to European companies selling outside of the eurozone. Market participants also watched a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries for signs of any further moves to limit a glut of crude oil, which has weighed on futures prices . In corporate news, the market was watching the tumble in Hibbett Sports Inc. , which was on track for its steepest daily stock drop in 18 years after the sports retailer said it expected second-quarter sales to slump. Also, Shares of WebMD Health Corp. soared on news that KKR & Co. was looking to take the health-care information company private. Looking ahead, Google-parent Alphabet Inc. is set to report after the close of trade on Monday. Further out, the Fed kicks off its two-day policy meeting on Tuesday, with the central bank not expected to lift interest rates further, but clues about its policy plans and the state of the U.S. economy will be closely tracked in its updated statement. In economic news, the IHS Markit services PMI unchanged at 54.2 in July, while on manufacturing came in at 53.2 in July from 52.0 in the previous month. A reading above 50 indicates economic growth.

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From:: Stock Market News

Dow struggles to take flight as Wall Street focuses on earnings; Fed ahead

The U.S. stock market opened slightly lower on Monday to start a week packed with corporate earnings releases and a midweek meeting of the Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading less than 0.1% lower at 21,557, the S&P 500 index was off about 0.1% at 2,470. The Nasdaq Composite Index , meanwhile, was trading flat at 6,390. Wall Street investors were paying attention to weakness in the dollar , and conversely strength in the euro . A weaker dollar tends to give a boost to multinational companies selling goods and services abroad, while a strengthening euro can provide a headwind to European companies selling outside of the eurozone. Market participants also watched a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries for signs of any further moves to limit a glut of crude oil, which has weighed on futures prices . In corporate news, the market was watching the tumble in Hibbett Sports Inc. , which was sinking after it said it expected second-quarter sales to slump. Also, Shares of WebMD Health Corp. soared on news that KKR & Co. was looking to take the health-care information company private. Looking ahead, Google-parent Alphabet Inc. is set to report after the close of trade on Monday. Further out, the Fed kicks off its two-day policy meeting on Tuesday, with the central bank not expected to lift interest rates further, but clues about its policy plans and the state of the U.S. economy will be closely tracked in its updated statement. In economic news, the IHS Markit flash purchasing managers index, a key business survey, came in at 55.8–lower than the 56.2 analysts had expected, and a six-month low for the index. A reading above 50 indicates economic growth.

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