The Fed spiked the punchbowl instead of removing it and Wall Street roared ahead. It did this by not specifying more clearly when interest rates will start to rise. instead of promising to keep rates at zero “for a considerable time”, the US central bank said it “can be patient in beginning to normalize the…
PHH Corp (PHH) provides outsourced solutions to financial institutions, real estate companies, credit unions, corporations and government agencies through its mortgage subsidiary. They are one of the top 10 originators of retail residential mortgages in the country. They also provide home financing directly to consumers. In July, they completed the sale of their fleet management…
Stocks appear on track to sustain the positive Fed-inspired momentum from last week, though volumes are expected to be relatively on the thin side in the next few sessions. On the data front, this holiday-shortened week’s docket is front-end loaded, with the final look at Q3 GDP, the November Durable Goods and Personal Income &…
While the U.S. economy is reveling in low oil and gas prices, Russia is breaking down. Over the last two weeks, it’s been playing military and economic shenanigans in a last-ditch effort to crawl out of the hole it largely dug for itself. But from what I’ve seen, Putin is an emotional and fickle leader,…
The headlines for existing home sales say that sales lost momentum – with sales declining year-over-year (seasonally adjusted data). Our analysis of the unadjusted data shows similar deceleration – but the unadjusted three month rolling averages for sales are positive this month after being in contraction all of 2014 and are accelerating. Bottom line – this…
As investors, we should never allow a year to pass by without extracting the important lessons from the critical movements of money that took place. A look back at 2014 holds great economic learning and offers key financial wisdom. It was a year of volatility and marked instability but also one of resiliency and measured…
About 82 percent of the derivatives market in the United States relates to the interest rate derivatives. This reflect the real Debt Bubble that is brewing. Why did the banks need to repeal Dodd-Frank and the Volcker Rule to get taxpayer backing for their losses again? One need not look beyond the oil derivatives. The bank…
The strength in the Treasury bond markets has surprised many analysts. At the end of last year, many were expecting that interest rates will go up in 2014 as the economic growth picks up and Fed moves towards raising interest rates. But interest rates have moved significantly lower this year, benefiting Treasury bond ETFs. One…
The gold price was unable to make a lot of progress this year, although the damage was contained in comparison to last year. Doubts about the future of gold have grown over the past few months, however. An old saying teaches us that gold and silver will always hold their value, but the…
Having exuberantly reached its highest level since September 2013 last month (despite the total collapse in mortgage applications), it appears the ugly reality of the housing market has peeked its head out once again. As prices rose, existing home sales plunged 6.1% – the most since July 2010 (against an expected 1.1% drop) to 4.93mm SAAR…
