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WASHINGTON — The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage declined to 4.04% in the week that ended July 9, pulling back from the prior week’s reading of 4.08%, which was the highest rate since October, according to a Thursday report from federally controlled mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. “Yields on Treasury securities declined this week in response to investor concerns about events in Greece and China,” said Sean Becketti, Freddie’s chief economist. A year ago, the 30-year rate was at 4.15%. A record low of 3.31% for the 30-year mortgage was reached in November 2012. The average rate for the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 3.20% in the latest week from 3.24% in the prior week. Meanwhile, the rate for a 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage dropped to 2.93% from 2.99%. The rate for a 1-year Treasury-indexed ARM decreased to 2.50% from 2.52%.

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American Express Co. made it easier for customers to check out online with the Thursday launch of Amex Express Checkout. The company is touting it as “a first-ever, fast and secure way for U.S. card members to fly through checkout at online merchants using their Amex login,” according to a news release. Through a partnership with Stripe, a company that enables merchants to accept online payments, Amex card members will have their account information transferred to the online merchant through a secure token. This will allow them to check out with a few clicks while Amex auto-fills checkout fields with payment and billing information. According to the Amex announcement, this feature is available today at BarkBox, Burberry, Ledbury, Newegg, Sabon, Ticketmaster, Warby Parker and The Wall Street Journal. And will be available in the coming months at Avis Car Rental Banana Republic, Cole Haan, Hulu, Gap, Intermix, Old Navy POPSUGAR Must Have, Rocketmiles, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM and others. Shares of American Express are down 18.4% in the year-to-date, per FactSet.

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U.S. stocks rebounded sharply on Thursday echoing big gains in global equity markets. The main indexes looked to recover steep losses from the previous session. The S&P 500 gained 27 points, or 1.3%, to 2,074. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 240 points, or 1.4%, to 17,764. The Nasdaq Composite began the day up 70 points, or 1.4% at 4,980.

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Goldman Sachs on Thursday changed ratings on three fast-food/fast-casual stocks to reflect improving economic data and stragetic and structural changes at individual companies. Analysts upgraded Panera Bread Co. to neutral from sell, and downgraded Shake Shack Inc. to sell from neutral and Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. to neutral from buy. “While we still have longer-term concerns regarding competitive intrusion and the rollout of PNRA 2.0, we are incrementally more positive on the near-term comp outlook following analysis of PNRA’s recently launched national advertising campaign,” they wrote in a note. In Shake Shack’s case, the downgrade reflects expectations that a positive long-term view is already priced in, as well as the potential for selling pressure once the lockup period expires on July 29. Dunkin’s downgrade reflects the view that the stock is trading towards peak levels on an embedded value/EBITDA basis. Only Shake Shack shares were active in premarket trade, up about 0.6%.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The Greek debt crisis may be a precursor of future trouble, said Olivier Blanchard, the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist, on Thursday. The larger lesson from the crisis is that “the post crisis world is a world of high debt,” Blanchard said at a press conference updating the IMF’s world economic outlook. “It doesn’t take much, just a bad shock, for debt dynamics to go wrong,” he said. “We have to be ready to see other episodes of that type,” he added.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The bank holiday in Greece and the meltdown in the Chinese stock market “have not changed the broad outlook” of moderate growth for the global economy in 2015, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday. The IMF trimmed its outlook for global growth by two-tenths, to 3.3%, slightly slower than the 3.4% growth rate seen in 2014. Most of the decline was due to slower growth in the first quarter in North America, which led the IMF to downgrade its outlook for U.S. economic growth by six-tenths to 2.5%, just above last year’s 2.4% growth rate. But the first-quarter weakness was expected to be only a “temporary setback,” the international financial agency said. The recovery in the eurozone seems broadly on track, the IMF said. Risks to the outlook remained slightly tilted to the downside, notably from asset price shifts and financial market volatility.

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Procter & Gamble said it has accepted Coty Inc.’s $12.5 billion bid to buy 43 of the consumer products giant’s beauty brands, including Sassoon Professional, Hugo Boss, Dolce & Gabbana, Max Factor and Covergirl. P&G’s stock rose 1% in premarket trade. The company said it expects to book a one-time gain of $5 billion to $7 billion after the closing of the deal, which is expected to occur in the second half of 2016. The company said the reduced earnings per share from the sale of the brands is expected to be completely offset by a combination of share retirement and lower costs. P&G said with the closing of the deal, it is targeting a return to shareholders of up to $70 billion from 2016 to 2019 through the paying of dividends and retired shares. The stock has dropped 11% year to date through Wednesday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost 1.7%.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The number of people who applied for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended July 4 jumped to the highest level since February, mainly because of annual shutdowns at auto plants in states such as Michigan and Ohio for retooling. Initial jobless claims climbed 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 297,000 in the period stretching from June 28 to July 4, the government said Thursday. Unadjusted claims more than doubled in Michigan and rose by 50% in Ohio. New York and California also saw big increases, with most other states showing little change. The average of initial U.S. claims over the past month, meanwhile, rose by a smaller 4,500 to 279,500, indicating that layoffs remain low nationwide. The four-week average smooths out sharp fluctuations in the more volatile weekly report and is seen as a more accurate predictor of labor-market trends. Weekly claims tend to gyrate in July because of temporary auto plant shutdowns and seasonal changes in education-related employment during the summer school break. Continuing jobless claims rose by 69,000 to 2.33 million in the week ended June 27. Continuing claims, reported with a one-week lag, reflect people already receiving unemployment checks.

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QLogic Corp.’s stock , which is currently halted, could take a hit in premarket trade Thursday, after the company provided a fiscal first-quarter profit and sales outlook that were well below expectations because of weak demand in the server and storage markets. For the quarter ended June 28, the company said it expects adjusted earnings per share in the range of 16 cents to 17 cents, below the FactSet consensus of 25 cents. Revenue is expected to be about $113 million, below the company’s previous outlook of $124 million to $132 million. “We are disappointed with the level of business activity during the quarter,” said Chief Executive Prasad Rampalli. “We will provide more details on our first quarter results during our earnings call on July 30th.” The stock, which is set to resume trade at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, has gained 5% year to date, while the S&P 500 has slipped 0.6%.

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Paychex inc. said Thursday it is raising its quarterly dividend by 11% to 42 cents a share from 38 cents. The new dividend will be payable Aug. 20 to shareholders of record as of Aug. 3. Shares of the payroll and benefits outsourcing firm were not yet active in premarket trade, but are up 2.5% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has fallen 0.6%.

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