July 8, 2010 – Meyer Shields, an analyst for Stifel Nicolaus, downgraded Warren Buttett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. on Thursday and advised investors to sell the stock.
In a research note he said that a combination of the potential for oil prices to rise and a decline in consumer confidence will probably slow consumer spending. He [...]
July 8, 2010 – Bond prepayment reports indicate that as home loan rates began to fall to record lows an increasing number of better credit borrowers began to take advantage of mortgage refinancing.
There is potentially even more good news for those who qualify for a mortgage refinance. According to Freddie Mac, the average rate [...]
July 8, 2010 – The Labor Department said on Thursday that new claims for unemployment benefits dropped by 21,000 to a seasonally adjusted 454,000.
This drop is bigger than forecast, and is considerably lower than the March 2009 peak of 651,000 requests for jobless aid. However, the numbers have been stuck around 450,000 since the [...]
July 7, 2010 – The FHFA (Federal Housing Finance Agency) stuck a severe blow to the PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) program that’s backed by the Obama administration and the Department of Defense on Tuesday when it announced that it’s unacceptable for mortgage lenders to allow the PACE program as it is currently structured.
The FHFA [...]
July 7, 2010 – According to the May “Mortgage Monitor” from Lender Processing Services (LPS), some mortgage delinquencies appear to be rising.
There has been a sharp increase in thirty-day delinquencies and the overall delinquency rate now stands at 9.2%.
First time sixty-day delinquencies are lower than their extreme levels in 2009, but a bigger percentage remain [...]
July 6, 2010 – Citigroup upgraded Progressive (NYSE: PGR) from a Hold to a Buy on Tuesday.
Over the past fifty two weeks Progressive stock traded between $14.12 and $20.95 per share. It closed on the Friday before the Fourth of July weekend at $18.62, 31.9% above its 52 week low, on relatively light volume [...]
July 6, 2010 – The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Honolulu Police Department are investigating a computer breach of the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s (UH) parking office database for records dating between 1998 and 2009.
More than 53,000 people, primarily UH Manoa faculty and staff members employed in 1998, as well as anyone who [...]
July 6, 2010 – A special agent at the Office of Inspector General (OIG), Natalie Forbort, says, “There’s a growing trend in the area of identity theft related to Financial Student Aid programs.”
The OIG is a part of the US Department of Education that investigates the misuse of federal financial aid as well as student [...]
July 5, 2010 – After focusing on getting mortgage applications for the past two months, Citigroup has seen a 60% surge in applications and now has almost $2 billion in the pipeline for June.
Brad Dinsmore, the head of Citi’s North American retail banking business, says that this is up from less than $1 billion in [...]
July 5, 2010 – A report released in the latter part of June showed that a higher percentage of borrowers who had mortgage modifications done under the federal government’s foreclosure prevention program will probably stay current than people who had different mortgage modifications.
According to the study which was released by the Office of the Comptroller [...]
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