A lack of homes for sale is keeping potential buyers at bay. Signed contracts to buy existing homes rose just 0.1 percent in December from a downwardly revised November reading, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Taking the revision into account, sales were flat. Only the Northeast, likely due to warmer-than-average weather, saw gains. These so-called ‘pending’ home sales are now 4.2 percent higher than December of 2014. Pending sales are a forward indicator of closed sales one to two months later. Getty Images “Overall, while sustained job creation is spurring more activity compared to a year ago,…
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Defying expectations for the start of 2016, mortgage rates spiraled down further last week, spurring more volume in the mortgage market. Total applications increased 8.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis last week from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Refinance applications were behind much of the surge, rising 11 percent from the previous week, seasonally adjusted. The results include an adjustment for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Borrowers are clearly seeing the rate drop as perhaps a last opportunity to seize on historically low rates. Refinance volume is still down 30 percent from the same…
Traders have been speculating for several weeks that a part of the global selling in stocks that started in December may be due to oil-related sovereign wealth funds selling assets in order to make up for the shortfall in revenues due to the decline in oil. We are starting to get some data that indicates that at least part of the selling may indeed be due to this type of selling, particularly regarding the weakness we have seen in financials. Oil-related SWFs have significant assets. The Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute estimates that the assets under management of the largest oil-producing…
After oil’s slide continued Monday, “Fast Money” traders debated whether energy companies would see relief any time soon. U.S. crude futures settled nearly 6 percent lower on the day at $31.62 a barrel. The commodity’s price has fallen nearly 18 percent this year, but trader Guy Adami believes it could slide even more. He pointed to the CBOE Crude Oil Volatility Index, which spiked nearly 8 percent on Monday and has increased 43 percent this year. The index measures market expectations for crude oil volatility. “The OVX still suggests there’s further pain to the downside,” he said. Scott Olson |…
Don’t feel dumb if you’re sometimes flummoxed by the navigation in an iPhone or Androidapp, or even within iOS or Android itself. It happens to the best of us. You’re happily tapping around when, quite suddenly, you reach a dead end. Maybe you’re trying to find the Settings menu, or you want to change the font on a message. Maybe you just want to go back where you came from. But there’s no obvious way to do it. The sleek, minimalist designs of the Android and iOS ecosystems, while certainly attractive, are notoriously tricky to navigate. But there’s a method…
Tim Seymour and Guy Adami went head to head on Netflix. Seymour was a seller while Adami said buy it. Dan Nathan was a seller of Exxon-Mobil. Karen Finerman said “don’t chase Alphabet” after the internet giant reported better than expected quarterly numbers. Trader disclosure: On February 1, 2016, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC’s “Fast Money” were owned by the “Fast Money” traders: Tim Seymour is long AAPL, BAC, DO, FCX, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, NKE, T, TWTR, XOM. Tim’s firm is long BABA, BIDU, IWM, KO, PEP, SAVE, SBUX, VALE, WMT, YHOO,…
Imagination Technologies, the U.K. company that makes graphics chips for Apple’siPhones and iPads, is ditching its CEO and its strategy as it heads for its second consecutive year of losses. The semiconductor design and licensing company plans to sell its loss-making digital audio business, Pure, which has dogged its results for years, but will invest more in its PowerVR graphics core designs, which Apple uses in its iPhones and iPads. Board member Andrew Heath will serve as interim CEO while the company searches for a replacement for Sir Hossein Yassaie, who had run the company since 1998. Imagination reported a…
In the wave of Monday morning’s earning reports Aetna topped the Street’s forecast, but missed on its 2016 projected earnings. The health insurance giant earned an adjusted $1.37 per share in its latest quarter, beating estimates by 16 cents, and its revenue also topped forecasts. Aetna was helped by improved membership numbers and margins in its Medicare business. The company expects 2016 earnings of $7.75 per share, below estimates for $8.05 a share. “I think Street consensus was built from a number of other aspects. Our stock is up today; our number was at least $7.75 a share, which is…
It’s not unusual to hear of vulnerabilities in smart-home security systems these days, as security researchers turn their attention to the Internet of Things. It’s worrying, though, when a modern security system turns out to be vulnerable to a so-called replay attack, the kind of thing that worked against garage door openers back in the 1990s. The latest example is SimpliSafe, a wireless alarm system that’s marketed as cheaper and easier to install than traditional wired home security systems. Its manufacturer claims that the system is used in over 200,000 homes in the U.S. According to Andrew Zonenberg, a researcher with…
inkedin founder Reid Garrett Hoffman (C) and CEO Jeff Weiner (2nd R) at the ringing of the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange May 19, 2011 More than 70 percent of reports this earnings season have exceeded analysts’ estimates, setting up a potential winning trade among those names with strong track records. On average, fourth-quarter earnings among the companies that have reported are 3 percent above expectations, but flat on a year-over-year basis, according to Thomson Reuters. Excluding the energy sector, earnings growth stands at 2 percent. Similarly, revenue figures have come in line with estimates, but declined…