Europe’s leading stock markets nudged higher on Wednesday as traders awaited key US economic data and assessed the latest batch of company results.
London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index added just 0.09 percent to 5,5607.24 points, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 gained 0.25 percent to 5,900.79 points and in Paris the CAC 40 was up 0.32 percent to 3,922.62 [...]
Archive for the ‘borrowers’ Category
European stocks edge ahead as investors await data
March 10th, 2010 by Mortgage Writer
Tags: european stocks, eurozone, investors, us economic, wall street
more...FDIC’s Bair says low interest rates “appropriate”
March 8th, 2010 by Mortgage Writer
A low interest rate policy is “clearly appropriate” due to the still struggling economy, a top U.S. bank regulator said on Monday, while also expressing frustration that banks are not doing enough to get credit flowing.
Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, said credit-worthy borrowers are still not getting enough access to loans, [...]
Tags: bair, business economics, business lending, FDIC, federal deposit, us bank
Banks shuttered in Fla., Ill., Md., Utah
March 6th, 2010 by Mortgage Writer
Regulators on Friday shuttered banks in Florida, Illinois, Maryland and Utah, boosting to 26 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year following the 140 brought down in 2009 by mounting loan defaults and the recession.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Sun American Bank, based in Boca Raton, Fla., with [...]
Tags: american bank, banks, federal deposit, Florida, illinois, maryland, utah
Mortgage rates fall below the 5 percent mark
March 5th, 2010 by Mortgage Writer
Mortgages rates have dipped below 5 percent again, four weeks before a government program that is helping keep rates low is scheduled to run out.
The average rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 4.97 percent this week, down from 5.05 percent a week earlier, mortgage finance company Freddie Mac said Thursday.
Rates dropped to a [...]
Tags: home loan, homebuying, loans, mortgage finance, mortgage rates
Lone holdout gives in, Senate OKs jobless benefits
March 3rd, 2010 by Mortgage Writer
Putting a lone senator’s cantankerous challenge behind it, the Senate is back to work on a $100 billion-plus bill reviving popular tax breaks and extending longer and more generous jobless benefits through the end of the year.
Kentucky Republican Jim Bunning relented on Tuesday evening, freeing the Senate to approve stopgap legislation extending for another month [...]
Tags: america's working, barack obama, putting, senate, small businesses, unemployment
Fed’s Hoenig: zero-rate pledge invites speculation
March 2nd, 2010 by Mortgage Writer
A senior Federal Reserve official said on Tuesday that an extended period of ultra-low U.S. interest rates invites speculative behavior and is risky.
“When you have zero rates that go on indefinitely, you are inviting future problems,” Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig told CNBC television in an interview.
“We know that zero is non-sustainable [...]
Tags: fed, federal reserve, us central bank, us interest rates, us unemployment rate, zero rate
Global factories enjoy bumper February
March 1st, 2010 by Mortgage Writer
Factories around the world enjoyed a bumper February with business surveys showing the manufacturing sector in major economies continued to lead an economic recovery, despite a slowdown in some growth rates.
Factory activity expanded across Asia last month, although powerhouse China showed some signs of weakening, while in Europe growth rates hit 30-month highs despite contraction [...]
Tags: asian economist, global factories, hsbc, manufacturing sector
Strong growth in Q4 likely to slow throughout 2010
February 26th, 2010 by Mortgage Writer
Don’t count on the economic growth spurt at the end of 2009 to carry into this year.
The economy grew at a blistering 5.7 percent pace in the final quarter of last year, according to a preliminary government estimate. And an updated estimate due out Friday is expected to produce the same figure, according to Wall [...]
Tags: businesses, conomic activity, economy grew, home foreclosures, q4, unemployment, wall street
Economists React: Bernanke Has ‘No Interest in Surprising Markets’
February 25th, 2010 by Mortgage Writer
* Bernanke’s prepared testimony reaffirmed that an expected backdrop of low rates of resource utilization, subdued inflation, and stable inflation expectations is consistent with a low for long stance on policy interest rates. –David Hensley, J.P. Morgan Chase
* This is Bernanke reinforcing that rates are not moving in the near term, the Fed will need [...]
Tags: bernanke, congressional testimony, economists, federal reserve, jp morgan chase, surprising markets
Bernanke to outline exit path to skeptical Congress
February 24th, 2010 by Mortgage Writer
Ben Bernanke may have cleared the hurdles to his confirmation for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman, but that does not mean lawmakers will be any friendlier to him at high-profile hearings on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Fed chief’s semiannual report to Congress should feature both impassioned debate over financial regulation and lots of questions [...]
Tags: ben bernanke, central bank's, federal reserve, financial services, great depression, macroeconomic