Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks opened higher Friday after a mixed November durable goods orders report that showed a 3.8 percent increase, the most in four months. In light trading, just after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 15 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up about 2 points and the NASDAQ was up 5 points. The Commerce Department reported Friday that bookings for equipment meant to last three years rose 3.8 percent in November after no change in October. However, demand for business equipment, excluding military hardware and aircraft, dropped 1.2 percent in November, the biggest decline since January. The decrease in demand for capital goods signals manufacturers are still slow to boost investment in light of the political gridlock in the U.S. and the ongoing European sovereign debt crisis. [...] Continue Reading…
U.S. stocks little changed early after durable goods report
December 24th, 2011 
davidguide New home sales jump in November to 7-month high
December 24th, 2011 davidguide Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – New home sales jumped in November from October. But, 2011 is still on track to end the year as the worst year for home sales in history. On Friday, the Commerce Department said new home sales rose 1.6 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 315,000. The scant rise is less than half the 700,000 new homes that economists say should be sold to sustain a healthy housing market. The number is also below the 323,000 homes sold in 2010, the worst year for sales on records dating back to 1963. While new home sales account for just a fraction of the housing market, they do have a big impact on the economy. According to the National Association of Home Builders, each new home built creates about three jobs for a [...] Continue Reading…
Treasury sells 30-year bonds at record lows
December 18th, 2011 davidguide Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – The U.S. Treasury Department sold $13 billion in 30-year bonds Wednesday at a record low yield of 2.925 percent. Despite the debt security having the lowest yield on record, investors in the U.S. and around the world still have a hearty appetite for the long bond. Bidders offered to buy 3.05 times the amount of debt sold, compared to an average of 2.81 times at the last four comparable auctions. Indirect bidders, those that include global central banks, bought 32.5 percent of the sale, compared to 36.1 percent on average. Direct bidders–domestic money managers–purchased another 21.2 percent, versus an average of 19.5 percent. Following the oversubscribed and highly successful auction, the broader bond market continued the rally. Yields on 10-year notes, which move in the opposite direction to prices, fell 5 [...] Continue Reading…
Israel faces housing bubble – or bust, OECD warns
December 14th, 2011 davidguide The Media Line Staff
Jerusalem, Israel David Rosenberg (The Medi – Home prices – an anxious subject for both Israeli consumers and policy makers as they first raced higher and then suddenly started to sink – remain a threat to the economy, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) warned on Monday. Although the price rises have eased as the government has clamped down on mortgage lending, Israel is by no means out of the hole yet, the Paris-based organization said in a report. Israel faces a twin risk of prices spiraling upward to bubble levels, if current measures don’t bring about long-term stability, or conversely dropping sharply. “There is still a risk that a soft landing may not be achieved and house prices (and loan repayments) in relation to rents and incomes may reach ‘bubble’ proportions, heightening the risk of a sharp and damaging correction,” the [...] Continue Reading…
Moody’s downgrades top three French banks
December 12th, 2011 davidguide Linda Young – AHN News Writer
Paris, France (AHN) – Moody’s announced Friday it was downgrading the credit rating of all three of France’s top banks because of the difficulty they have borrowing money. Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas went down one notch from a Aa2 rating to Aa3, which is the fourth-highest investment grade rating. Societe Generale fell from Aa3 to A1, the fifth-highest rating. The best rating a bank can get is AAA. BNP is the largest bank, Societe Generale is second and Credit Agricole is third. The credit rating agency also gave each of the three a negative outlook and warned that it might downgrade them again. Moody’s said that not only had liquidity and funding conditions deteriorated at each of the banks, but that it was likely the situation would become worse because of further funding pressures from the European debt crisis, [...] Continue Reading…
US stocks look to extend last week’s impressive gains
December 6th, 2011 davidguide Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks opened up on Monday morning as investors and traders look to extend last week’s strong rally. Just after the opening bell on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 157 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 18 points and the NASDAQ jumped 32 points. Giving stocks an added boost was optimism that European policy makers will move to decisively stem the two-year-old sovereign debt crisis. Last week, the Dow closed at 12,019.42, up 7 percent, or 788 points. That was the second biggest weekly point gain in the Dow’s storied history. The S&P 500 gained 7.4 percent to 1244.28, and the NASDAQ tacked on 7.6 percent to finish at 2626.93. Worries that some European banks are having funding issues have been weighing heavily on global markets. But a [...] Continue Reading…
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac spark holiday eviction moratorium by banks
December 4th, 2011 davidguide Linda Young – AHN News Writer
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Some struggling homeowners who are in foreclosure proceedings are getting a gift from an unlikely source: no eviction over the holidays. Fannie Mae (FNMA, Fortune 500), Freddie Mac (FMCC, Fortune 500) say they will not evict anyone from Dec. 19 through Jan. 2. Joining in the moratorium are Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) Mortgage and Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), which will suspend evictions from Dec. 22 to Jan. 2. Wells Fargo says that while it will suspend evictions on properties for which it wrote mortgages, it might not do so on mortgages from other banks that it services. Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) did not give specific dates but said that it would avoid foreclosure sales, as well as evictions of homeowners or tenants, around the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Terry Edwards, [...] Continue Reading…
Obama sends Europeans back home with empty promises
November 30th, 2011 davidguide Tejinder Singh – AHN News Correspondent
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The United States-European Union summit here ended without any fiscal help emerging from the U.S. as ambassadors from both sides provided a read-out of the meeting while the host president brushed aside chances of any news-making headlines emerging. President Barack Obama, along with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, did not address a news conference but made post-summit statements in the White House Roosevelt Room. Obama noted that “much has changed” since the last EU summit in Portugal last year. “What hasn’t changed is the fundamental bonds” between the U.S. and EU, he said. Playing down the idea of there being news from the meetings, Obama said, “These aren’t always the most dramatic meetings because we agree on so much; that sometimes it’s hard to make news,” stressing [...] Continue Reading…
German bond sales fizzle
November 24th, 2011 davidguide Linda Young – AHN News Writer
Berlin, Germany (AHN) – Sale of German bonds flopped with Wednesday’s auction resulting in only selling $4.82 billion worth of 10-year bonds, while Germany had sought to sell $8.1 billion worth. That caused yields on those bonds to rise above 2 percent. Although the German sovereign debt is considered the most secure in the eurozone, analysts say the under-subscription of its bond sales signals the nation is not immune to the risk aversion arising in the eurozone sovereign debt market. German officials said they would sell the leftover bonds on secondary markets.
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Shantytown dwellers face eviction
November 24th, 2011 davidguide Port Harcourt, Nigeria (IRIN) – Over 200,000 people living in shantytowns on the waterfront in Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers State, southern Nigeria, could be forcibly evicted if local authorities carry out their threat to demolish the settlements, say human rights group Amnesty International and local activists. “I will demolish [the] waterfronts. All of them,” Rivers State Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi told reporters on 27 October. Residents are considered “temporary occupants” and government is only legally required to give seven days’ notice to vacate, he said, adding demolitions are needed to reduce crime in the area and make way for new developments. In a report in October 2011 Amnesty said if people are forcibly evicted without adequate consultation, sufficient notice, compensation or alternative accommodation, many will be left homeless and risk losing their livelihoods. Despite Amaechi’s statements, Rivers State’s Commissioner for Urban Development, Tammy Danagogo, said [...] Continue Reading…
