Foreclosures | Mortgages | Financing
In a lengthy release published in response to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Renovate America confirmed that both the FBI and SEC are indeed probing the company’s business, but said that the nature of the investigations is not as serious as the WSJ portrays it to be. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
A slowing refinance market is being blamed for mortgage layoffs in North Carolina at Bank of America Corp. Technology staffing is also being cut.
Lower demand for mortgage refinances as interest rates on home loans have become elevated drove the decision to make the job cuts in Charlotte.
Impacted BofA employees handle the paperwork for borrowers who are seeking to refinance their existing mortgages, a spokesman said.
From:: Financing
The U.S. dollar jumped as high as C$1.2433 against its Canadian rival in Wednesday’s session, compared to only C$1.2347 late Tuesday, following remarks by Bank of of Canada Gov. Stephen Poloz. He said the central bank’s policy decisions are particularly dependent on economic data amid persistently low inflation in the developed world. He said that any change in interest rates wouldn’t affect inflation fully for a year and a half to two years, adding that “when we make our monetary policy decisions, we are less concerned about the latest inflation numbers–which are already a month old–than we are about where inflation will be in the future.” The BOC already raised its key interest rate twice this year, once in July and once in early September. Poloz further reiterated the BOC’s inflation target of 1-3%, and said that exports will be boosted by a lower Canadian dollar.
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From:: Stock Market News
Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. shares are up 1.9% Wednesday after the company’s stock was upgraded to buy from hold at Canaccord Genuity, which believes that company’s strategic turnaround is starting to yield results. The price target was raised to $58 from $43. “After a multi-year stretch of excessive promotions, stale innovation in handbags, and a watch category that disproportionately depressed comps and collapsed earnings before interest and taxes margins, we believe the strategic steps management has recently begun implementing are showing early signs of traction,” Canaccord analysts led by Camilo Lyon wrote in a Wednesday note. Michael Kors has recently taken steps to add embellishment and make other style changes to its merchandise, and has pulled back from department stores. The introduction of the Access smart watch line has also offset the declines in the fashion watch category. Michael Kors shares are up 11.5% for the year so far, and up 34% for the last three months. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF is up 3.2% for the past three months and the S&P 500 index is up 3.3% for the period.
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From:: Stock Market News
A comprehensive snapshot of weekly mortgage applications was little changed as continued weakening in refinance activity offset an increase in purchase business.
A less than 1 percent seasonally adjusted decline from a week earlier was recorded for the Market Composite Index during the seven days ended Sept. 22.
Even without applying seasonal adjustments to the index, the volume of retail residential loan applications completed will still down a percent compared to last week’s report.
From:: Financing
Bank stocks surged Wednesday, with the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF running up 1% to the highest level seen in nearly a decade, as hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen and upbeat data fueled a rise in Treasury yields. Among the financial sector tracker’s (XLF) most heavily weighted components, shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. rallied $3.55, or 1.5%, and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. rose 95 cents, or 1.0%, to pace the Dow Jones Industrial Average advancers. The shares’ gains were adding a combined 31 points to the Dow’s price, which was up 10 points. Elsewhere, shares of Bank of America Corp. climbed 2.1%, Citigroup Inc. tacked on 1.8% and Wells Fargo & Co. gained 0.6%. The XLF was on track to close at the highest level since Dec. 10, 2007.The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose 7.4 basis points to a 2-month high of 2.303%. The higher yield can help boost bank profits, as it can increase the spread between what banks earn on longer-term assets like loans and the cost of shorter-term liabilities to fund those assets.
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From:: Stock Market News
Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration Wednesday showed that domestic crude supplies fell by 1.8 million barrels for the week ended Sept. 22. That’s contrary to the forecast for a rise of 1.3 million barrels by analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts. The American Petroleum Institute had reported late Tuesday a fall of 761,000 barrels, according to sources. Gasoline stockpiles were up 1.1 million barrels for the week after three consecutive weeks of declines, while distillate stockpiles fell 800,000 barrels, according to the EIA. November crude rose 28 cents, or 0.5%, to $52.16 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices traded at $52.04 before the supply data.
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From:: Stock Market News
The city of Hartford, Conn., is on the brink of defaulting on its debt, S&P Global Ratings said late Tuesday. S&P lowered the city’s rating to double-C from B-minus, a steep four-notch downgrade. And it is keeping the city’s rating on negative credit watch. “The downgrade to ‘CC’ reflects our opinion that a default, a distressed exchange, or redemption appears to be a virtual certainty,” said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Victor Medeiros. S&P says Hartford’s budgetary performance has been weak for several years, the management environment remains constrained due to structurally imbalanced budget and that bankruptcy risk remains. City officials earlier this month warned of a potential bankruptcy filing in 60 days pending help for its fiscal emergency. Hartford is the capital of Connecticut, which itself is seen as a vulnerable credit risk, according to muni-market analysts. The state has yet to pass a budget for the current fiscal year that would close a two-year $3.5 billion spending gap.
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From:: Stock Market News
Shares of Micron Technology Inc. shot up 8.1% in very active trade to a record high early Wednesday, as a host of Wall Street analysts raised their price targets in the wake of better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results. Volume ballooned to over 33 million shares less than an hour after the open, enough to make the stock the most actively traded on major U.S. exchanges, and already above the full-day average of 28.4 million shares. Of the 32 analysts surveyed by FactSet, 17 boosted their price targets to life the average target to $48.54, which is 31% above current levels, compared with a target of $43.28 at the end of August. J.P. Morgan analyst Harlan Sur raised the target to $50 from $40, saying demand is expected to remain strong into next year on “robust” datacenter spending, a server upgrade cycle, the ramp of Apple Inc.’s next-generation iPhone, continued strong PC gaming and increasing content in automobiles. The stock has soared 17% over the past three months, while the PHLX Semiconductor Index has climbed 9% and the S&P 500 has gained 3.5%.
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From:: Stock Market News
Pending home sales dropped in August for the fifth time in six months to the lowest level since January 2016. This decrease even caused the National Association of Realtors to revise its forecast for the year. NAR now predicts 2017 will see a slight drop in existing home sales from the year before. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire