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WFC | Fifty Shades Of Gold | Goldman Sachs created a stir recently when it forecasted that gold would fall to 1 000 an ounce by the end of 2014 as the firm expected the Federal Reserve to reduce its bond buying program Goldman also suggested that gold miners might want to hedge their output locking in 2013 prices HSBC analysts have also been bearish on gold although the firm admits that lower gold prices tend to draw out tremendous demand from emerging markets especially China Because of that demand HSBC believes gold will end 2014 at around 1 435 an ounce says MarketWatch Keep in mind that Goldman Sachs does things that are good for Goldman not you says Bryon King from Things can change quickly in the gold market as investors saw when only days after Goldman s assertion the Federal Reserve surprised everyone by announcing it would continue purchasing 85 billion worth of bonds Gold investors cheered as the precious metal shot up the most in 15 months Unlike many commodities there are many shades to gold such as the Love Trade s buying gold for loved ones and the Fear Trade s purchasing gold as a store of value An additional shade investors need to be aware of is how the Fed interprets the recovery of the U S economy I had a few reasons to believe Ben Bernanke was going to pull the rug out from under the market s feet Before word came out I told Canada s Business News Network that the ending of quantitative easing was not going to be abrupt because it s not a black and white issue Consider the lack of significant job growth in the U S as many of the jobs that have been created in recent history were part time positions Investor s Business Daily IBD links this lackluster employment situation to President Barack Obama s Affordable Care Act According to the publication s scorecard more than 300 employers have cut work hours or jobs or otherwise shifted away from full time staff to limit liability under ObamaCare While providing affordable health care to Americans sounds honorable the loss of full time jobs seems to be an unintended consequence from the onerous regulations placed upon a business Take a look at IBD s chart which shows the accommodations industry s average weekly hours that nonsupervisors put in since 2000 During each recession in 2001 and again in 2008 to 2009 the hours dropped But since ObamaCare was signed into law which mandated that employers would need to provide health care coverage for staff who work more than 30 hours a week the average plummeted As of July the accommodations industry workweek hit 28 8 hours at a record low according to IBD It s not only about job growth Housing is also not rebounding as strongly as some people think I told Reuters that many people don t realize that According to USA Today almost half of the homes purchased in July were bought with cold hard cash In places like Florida nearly two thirds of home sales were completed without a mortgage loan says USA Today In Nevada about 65 percent of buyers paid with cash followed by Maine where nearly 60 percent of house sales were cash Perhaps regulation in the banking industry has made the process of getting a mortgage too burdensome for families Housing is one of the biggest multipliers for jobs where 1 spent in housing results in about 16 in related economic activity When interest rates are low more people apply for mortgages They build houses employ moving services and buy new furniture which in turn employs more people in multiple industries But after interest rates rose quickly the housing market came to a halt People who once qualified for a mortgage to build a new home no longer qualify at the higher rates meaning a potential inventory of new housing may quickly build At the same time big banks are announcing layoffs in mortgage lending Just today Wells Fargo announced it was going to lay off 1 800 employees as refinancing activity continues to slow The company had already told 2 300 workers to stop coming to work as rising interest rates curtail demand for new mortgages and refinancing So instead of the Fed quickly tapering its bond purchases and raising rates this process will likely be very gradual I believe the government will have to keep interest rates low to stimulate the economy And that s positive for equity markets as well as for gold If interest rates remain low real rates could remain in negative territory In my presentation on opportunities in resources and emerging markets I told the crowd at the Toronto Resource Investment Conference that 2 percent has been the tipping point for gold Historically gold and silver performed well in a low or negative real interest rate environment Regardless of where analysts think the gold price will be a year from now we believe gold and gold stocks can be an excellent portfolio diversifier We d rather hold quality gold companies that are experiencing a growth in resource base growth in production and growth in cash flow instead of trying to time the market Disclaimer All opinions expressed and data provided are subject to change without notice Some of these opinions may not be appropriate to every investor By clicking the link above you will be directed to a third party website U S Global Investors does not endorse all information supplied by this website and is not responsible for its content |
CMCSA | Slack raises 200 million in financing | By Heather Somerville SAN FRANCISCO Reuters Slack has raised 200 million in venture capital financing boosting its valuation to 3 8 billion the messaging software startup said on Friday The latest funding round comes in spite of a contraction in venture capital investing for technology startups amid widespread concern about high valuations The market rout among tech stocks earlier this year caused some venture capitalists to further tighten their purse strings Late stage investments Series D or later dropped 71 percent in February from a year earlier according to venture capital database PitchBook Slack s 200 million round is its largest yet the latest sign that some companies are still able to attract wary investors many of which are flush with cash In another instance Snapchat the ephemeral messaging app raised 175 million last month Investors boosted the Slack s valuation by 1 billion up from 2 8 billion a year ago The latest funding which brings Slack s total venture financing to 540 million was reported in recent weeks by multiple news outlets Slack on Friday confirmed the round which was led by Thrive Capital and included GGV Capital and Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA Ventures as well as existing investors San Francisco based Slack makes messaging software for businesses designed to help teams collaborate and communicate more effectively The company says it has 2 7 million daily active users although many of them access the free version of the software About 800 000 are paid users Slack s customers include media companies such as CBS and BuzzFeed tech companies such as Samsung Electronics KS 005930 Co Ltd and Salesforce Inc retailers universities and the U S government |
WFC | Wells Fargo expands operating committee creates online services group | Reuters Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co said on Monday it was expanding its operating committee and forming a business group to streamline its online services Franklin Codel head of home lending will join the operating committee and assume an expanded role that includes dealer services and personal lending the Wall Street bank said Perry Pelos who most recently led commercial banking services has been named the head of wholesale banking and will join the operating committee The decision to add members to the operating committee led by its Chairman and Chief Executive John Stumpf comes over a month after revelations that the bank opened accounts without customer approval for years to satisfy managers demands for new business Avid Modjtabai the head of the consumer lending and cross company operations was appointed head of payments virtual solutions and innovation
The bank which is expected to report third quarter earnings on Friday said the new appointments to the operating group are effective Nov 1 |
WFC | Wells Fargo CFO says accounts scandal won t hit profit much WSJ | Reuters Wells Fargo Co s N WFC chief financial officer said efforts by states to penalize its business over an unauthorized accounts scandal would not affect third quarter earnings much the Wall Street Journal reported citing a recording of an internal call John Shrewsberry was recorded as saying the bank would only take some legal set asides but publicizing this might incentivize people to do more to make it tougher on Wells Fargo the Journal reported The hour long call with 500 senior Wells Fargo executives took place on Monday and was intended to lay out the bank s strategy to move past the scandal the newspaper reported Wells Fargo representatives were not immediately available for comment The bank has been under pressure to show that it is ready to make amends and hold management accountable after government investigations revealed that some of its employees had opened as many as 2 million accounts without customers knowledge or permission in order to meet sales targets
Executives were also recorded as saying that growth in Wells Fargo s new retail banking business would likely decline due to the scandal the Journal reported |
WFC | Alibaba s new payment system lets virtual reality shoppers pay by nodding | By Sijia Jiang HONG KONG Reuters Alibaba NYSE BABA Group Holdings finance arm on Wednesday demonstrated a payment service that will allow virtual reality shoppers to pay for things in future just by nodding their heads VR Pay the new payment system is part of Alibaba s efforts to capitalize on the latest technology in online shopping In 2015 for example it introduced a facial recognition technology for Alipay mobile payments service advertised as pay with a selfie The VR payment technology means people using virtual reality goggles to browse virtual reality shopping malls will be able pay for purchases without taking off the goggles They can just nod or look instead Lin Feng who is in charge of Ant Financial s incubator F Lab that has been developing the payment service over the past few months told Reuters It is very boring to have to take off your goggles for payment With this you will never need to take out your phone User identity can be verified on VR Pay via account logins on connected devices or via voice print technology that recognizes each person s unique voice Lin said this was the most convenient method in a VR setting compared with other biometric recognition technologies But passwords will still be needed for authentication which the user can also enter with head movements touch or by staring at a point on virtual display for longer than 1 5 seconds he said VR Pay is expected to be ready for commercial launch by the end of this year Ant Financial said its new VR based payment infrastructure can make VR a tool rather than just a toy by connecting various VR goggle makers and app developers to the Alipay payments platform Ant Financial Services Group which was demonstrating VR Pay in Shenzhen on Wednesday operates China s largest online payments service Alipay with more than 450 million daily users In September it bought U S company EyeVerify a maker of optical verification technology used by U S banks including Wells Fargo NYSE WFC |
WFC | Warren Buffett s Latest Stock Picks And Largest Portfolio Holdings | Everybody loves Warren Buffett and respects his investing acumen so when he releases his portfolio statements all investors jump to try to figure out what he is doing In this article I will summarize the latest stock buys and sells of Warren Buffett s Bershire Hathaway BRK A and his latest portfolio overview Within the recent quarter Warren made only 13 trades of which nine come from the long side He bought two new companies and increased seven additional stock holdings in his portfolio The new stocks were Dish Network DISH and Suncor Energy SU The only stake he sold completely was the newspaper publisher Gannett His holdings in Kraft Foods Moody s and Mondelez were reduced within the recent quarter In sum Buffett didn t change much The stock with the highest influence to his portfolio pocket change was U S Bancorp The Oracle of Omaha increased that position by 27 37 percent which resulted in a portfolio impact of 0 69 percent You can find a full list of his latest transactions below Ten of his 13 latest stock moves pay dividends and the yields are between 0 33 and 3 84 Kraft Foods KRFT has a market capitalization of 31 03 billion The company employs 23 000 people generates revenue of 18 339 billion and has a net income of 1 642 billion Kraft Foods s earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization EBITDA amounts to 3 401 billion The EBITDA margin is 18 55 percent the operating margin is 14 56 percent and the net profit margin 8 95 percent Financial Analysis The total debt represents 42 74 percent of Kraft Foods s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 279 14 percent Due to the financial situation a return on equity of 16 24 percent was realized by Kraft Foods Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of 3 10 Last fiscal year Kraft Foods paid 0 50 in the form of dividends to shareholders Warren Buffett reduced the KRFT stake by 87 97 percent Market Valuation Here are the price ratios of the company The P E ratio is 16 82 the P S ratio is 1 69 and the P B ratio is finally 8 65 The dividend yield amounts to 3 84 percent and the beta ratio is not calculable Gannett GCI has a market capitalization of 5 51 billion The company employs 30 700 people generates revenue of 5 353 billion and has a net income of 475 01 million Gannett s earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization EBITDA amounts to 1 105 billion The EBITDA margin is 20 66 percent the operating margin is 14 75 percent and the net profit margin 8 87 percent Financial Analysis The total debt represents 22 45 percent of Gannett s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 60 92 percent Due to the financial situation a return on equity of 18 14 percent was realized by Gannett Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of 1 94 Last fiscal year Gannett paid 0 80 in the form of dividends to shareholders Warren Buffett sold out the GCI stake completly Market Valuation Here are the price ratios of the company The P E ratio is 12 43 the P S ratio is 1 03 and the P B ratio is finally 2 35 The dividend yield amounts to 3 33 percent and the beta ratio has a value of 2 45 Wells Fargo WFC has a market capitalization of 226 08 billion The company employs 274 300 people generates revenue of 48 391 billion and has a net income of 19 368 billion Wells Fargo s earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization EBITDA amounts to 35 295 billion The EBITDA margin is 72 94 percent the operating margin is 33 07 percent and the net profit margin 22 50 percent Financial Analysis The total debt represents 12 97 percent of Wells Fargo s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 117 14 percent Due to the financial situation a return on equity of 13 16 percent was realized by Wells Fargo Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of 3 69 Last fiscal year Wells Fargo paid 0 88 in the form of dividends to shareholders Warren Buffett increased the WFC stake by 1 08 percent Market Valuation Here are the price ratios of the company The P E ratio is 11 51 the P S ratio is 2 62 and the P B ratio is finally 1 55 The dividend yield amounts to 2 82 percent and the beta ratio has a value of 1 39 U S Bancorp USB has a market capitalization of 67 43 billion The company employs 64 486 people generates revenue of 12 883 billion and has a net income of 5 490 billion U S Bancorp s earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization EBITDA amounts to 9 734 billion The EBITDA margin is 75 56 percent the operating margin is 38 51 percent and the net profit margin 27 36 percent Financial Analysis The total debt represents 14 64 percent of U S Bancorp s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 132 87 percent Due to the financial situation a return on equity of 16 41 percent was realized by U S Bancorp Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of 2 94 Last fiscal year U S Bancorp paid 0 78 in the form of dividends to shareholders Warren Buffett increased the USB stake by 27 37 percent Market Valuation Here are the price ratios of the company The P E ratio is 12 46 the P S ratio is 3 36 and the P B ratio is finally 2 00 The dividend yield amounts to 2 51 percent and the beta ratio has a value of 1 00 Take a closer look at the full list of Warren Buffett s Berkshire Hathaway s latest stock trades The average P E ratio amounts to 22 10 and forward P E ratio is 13 50 The dividend yield has a value of 1 67 percent Price to book ratio is 5 01 and price to sales ratio 3 28 The operating margin amounts to 28 18 percent and the beta ratio is 1 40 Stocks from the list have an average debt to equity ratio of 4 48 Here is the full table with some fundamentals TTM These are Warren Buffett s biggest portfolio holdings Related Stock Ticker Symbols KRFT GCI WFC USB SU BK MDLZ NOV MCO CBI DISH GM VRSNDisclosure I am long KRFT MDLZ I receive no compensation to write about these specific stocks sector or theme I don t plan to increase or decrease positions or obligations within the next 72 hours For the other stocks I have no positions in any stocks mentioned and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours I receive no compensation to write about any specific stock sector or theme |
WFC | 3 Smart Money Dividend Picks | With the 10 year Treasury yield hitting new multi year highs and all dividend focused stocks taking a beating as a result income investors can be forgiven for feeling a little uneasy at the moment It s unsettling to buy a REIT MLP or dividend paying stock in the hopes of enjoying a nice 4 5 yield only to lose two or three times that much due to price declines During times of turbulence it can be helpful to take a peek over the shoulder of a successful investor you respect to see how they are reacting You shouldn t mindlessly ape what they are doing of course But following their trading moves can give you a sense of perspective With that in mind let s take a look at three investment gurus to see what dividend focused investments they are buying or perhaps not buying No guru list is complete without a mention of the Sage of Omaha so I ll start with Warren Buffett I wrote a short piece last week outlining some of Buffett s recent purchases though most of the comments centered around non dividend paying companies such as Dish Networks DISH Interestingly none of Buffett s major new additions are dividend focused per se Suncor Energy SU one of his larger new holdings pays a modest 2 3 Perhaps his most promising dividend payer is his old standby Wells Fargo Company WFC Buffett has owned Wells Fargo for years and it is currently the largest single holding in his portfolio He s been adding to the position throughout 2013 and he snapped up nearly 5 million shares last quarter Wells Fargo may seem an odd choice as a dividend stock given that the company yields only 2 5 Like most banks Wells Fargo slashed its dividend during the crisis to conserve capital Yet since 2011 Wells Fargo has been aggressively raising its dividend from a 0 05 per quarter in February of that year to 0 30 per quarter today The dividend is now nearly back to pre crisis levels We can t expect the dividend to rise by a factor of six again over the next two years those sorts of jumps only happen when you take those first steps out of crisis But I do expect the bank to deliver better than average dividend growth for the next several years Next on the list is one of my favorite value managers David Dreman If you re not familiar with Dreman you should be He wrote the book on contrarian investing and I mean that literally His is a classic any serious investor should have in their library He s also a regular contributor to Forbes So what has Mr Dreman been buying One position that caught my eye is Mack Cali Realty Corp CLI a real estate investment trust specializing in office and light industrial properties REITs have gotten pounded in the recent taper turbulence and Mack Cali is no exception In the past three months the stock has lost a quarter of its value But as the consummate contrarian Dreman appears to view the sell off as an opportunity In looking at Dreman s portfolio it is clear that he does not take large overweighted positions and his overall investment in Mack Cali is fairly modest Still it is telling that he is buying REITs at all given the recent volatility in their share prices At current prices Mack Cali yields a juicy 5 6 Though disturbingly the dividend was recently cut by a third I like David Dreman and recommend you read his books But as a general rule I don t like to buy REITs with falling dividends In fact I like to see a long track record of growing dividends I would gladly take a Realty Income O or a National Retail Properties NNN over Mack Cali Speaking of Realty Income I noticed that my favorite REIT recently popped up in the portfolio of quantitative hedge fund legend Jim Simons the CEO of Renaissance Technologies Renaissance Technologies returns over the years have been mind blowing If fact if I hadn t already been familiar with Simons I would have assumed his returns were bogus They seem too good to be true Simons Medallion fund became the stuff of legends by generating annual returns in excess of 35 since 1988 and that was after the fund s hefty fees were taken out Renaissance Technologies added shares of Realty Income in the second quarter Given Renaissance Technologies fast moving trading style it s possible that they already liquidated the position Still other gurus have been snapping up shares as well including Ray Dalio and Steven Cohen Because of Realty Income s position as a bond substitute its share price has been hit particularly hard among REITs The same is true for its peers in the conservative triple net retail sector But at current prices Realty Income yields 5 4 And I should emphasize that this is one of the most consistent dividend payers and serial raisers you can find on any stock exchange in the world This is a REIT that skated through the 2008 meltdown with nary a scratch I suspect that were I to write this article next quarter I might find quite a few new smart money gurus among its owners Disclosures Sizemore Capital is long O and NNN |
WFC | Stocks Who s Reporting | Stocks that are expected to trade actively in U S markets on Thursday include Hewlett Packard Company HPQ Abercrombie Fitch Co ANF Wells Fargo Co WFC L Brands Inc LTD Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc ONXX Amgen Inc AMGN Hormel Foods Corporation HRL Peabody Energy Corporation BTU Sears Holdings Corp SHLD The Hain Celestial Group Inc HAIN Williams Companies Inc WMB Market LevelsUS Dow Futures 14907 00 0 40 S P 500 Futures 1645 75 0 57 NASDAQ Futures 3084 50 0 72 Europe CAC 4053 99 0 97 DAX 8374 62 1 08 FTSE 6447 25 0 88 Asia Pacific Australia 5075 70 0 48 China 2067 12 0 28 Hong Kong 21895 40 0 35 Japan 13365 17 0 44 Metals Gold 1370 10 0 01 Silver 23 19 0 99 Copper 3 37 1 80 Energy Crude Oil 104 02 0 16 Natural Gas 3 51 1 42 Commodities Corn 4 78 0 93 Soya Bean 12 91 0 94 Wheat 6 46 0 50 Currency EUR USD 1 3335 0 15 GBP USD 1 5595 0 45 USD JPY 98 4800 0 82 10 year US Treasury 2 891 0 003 Market And Economic News UpdateU S stock index futures gain U S stock index futures are pointing to a higher open on Thursday following upbeat manufacturing data from the euro zone and China In economic news U S flash manufacturing PMI edged up to 53 9 in August from 53 7 in July Also jobless claims rose by 13 000 to 336 000 last week just above the 330 000 expected by economists Up ahead the leading economic index is scheduled for release at 10 a m ET with economists expecting the indicators to rise 0 5 percent in July European markets rise European markets are up in trade as upbeat data from the region offset Fed tapering concerns On the economic front Markit s preliminary composite PMI for the euro zone rose to a 26 month high of 51 7 in August up from 50 5 in July The CAC 40 INDEXEURO PX1 rallied 1 percent to 4053 99 points while the DAX INDEXDB DAX jumped 1 1 percent to 8374 62 The FTSE 100 INDEXFTSE UKX edged 0 9 percent higher to 6447 25 points The euro zone blue chip ESTX 50 PR EUR INDEXSTOXX SX5E Euro Stoxx 50 was up 1 3 percent in recent trading Asian stocks end mostly lower Asian markets lost in trade amid concerns over a looming withdrawal of U S monetary stimulus but a surprise improvement in Chinese manufacturing helped pare earlier losses The SSE Composite Index SHA 000001 Shanghai Composite Index fell 0 3 percent in a choppy session of trade despite Chinese manufacturing PMI rising to a four month high of 50 1 in August The NIKKEI 225 INDEXNIKKEI NI225 reversed early morning losses to close 0 4 percent lower The S P ASX 200 INDEXASX XJO index retreated from a two week low as the Australian dollar trimmed losses following better than expected Chinese manufacturing data Stocks In NewsHewlett Packard Company HPQ posted fiscal third quarter earnings excluding items of 86 cents per share on revenue of 27 23 billion versus Wall Street expectations for profits of 86 cents a share on revenue of 27 3 billion For the full year the tech bellwether sees adjusted EPS of 3 53 to 3 57 Hewlett Packard also announced a shake up in its executive ranks with Bill Veghte replacing Dave Donatelli at the helm of the Enterprise Group the company s second largest business division Abercrombie Fitch Co ANF ANF s second quarter profit fell to 11 4 million or 14 cents a share from 17 05 million or 0 20 a share in the year ago period Revenue dropped to 945 7 million from 951 4 million a year earlier Comparable store sales fell 10 percent globally and 11 percent in the U S the clothing company said Thursday Analysts had projected earnings of 28 cents a share on sales of 997 million Abercrombie sees third quarter earnings in a range of 40 to 45 cents per share but declined to provide full year outlook Shares in Abercrombie plunged in pre market trading Wells Fargo Co Wells Fargo Co WFC announced that its mortgage unit is cutting 2 300 jobs due to falling demand for refinancing following the sharp run up in interest rates The country s largest mortgage lender sent 60 day notices to 2 300 people in its home lending unit The latest job cuts represent about 20 percent of the 11 406 mortgage loan officers employed by the bank as of March 31 L Brands Inc LTD The parent company of Victoria s Secret and Bath Body Works said second quarter earnings came in at 61 cents per share ahead of the consensus estimate of 60 cents a share Sales increased 5 percent to 2 52 billion while same store sales rose 2 percent For the current quarter L Brands sees earnings of between 23 cents and 28 cents per share below current Street projections Shares were down sharply in pre market trading Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc ONXX Amgen Inc AMGN Onyx is giving potential buyers access to trial data on its new blood cancer drug Kyprolis according to a Reuters report Lead bidder Amgen is currently in advanced talks to buy Onyx for 130 per share or about 9 5 billion and had sought data from an ongoing trial on Kyprolis Hormel Foods Corporation HRL Hormel Foods reported weaker than expected quarterly earnings hurt by higher raw material costs that squeezed margins For fiscal third quarter the company earned 42 cents per share missing estimates by three cents Sales grew 7 5 percent to 2 16 billion topping expectations for 2 12 billion Shares were inactive at 42 11 pre market Peabody Energy Corporation BTU Peabody Energy has announced that veteran mining executive Glenn Kellow will be its new president and chief operating officer Kellow most recently served as president of BHP Billiton Limited ADR BHP s multinational Aluminum and Nickel business Shares closed Wednesday at 16 59 and were up more than a percent in the pre open session Sears Holdings Corp SHLD Sears Holdings posted second quarter loss of 194 million or 1 83 per share compared with a loss of 132 million or 1 25 a share in the same period last year Adjusted loss per share stood at 1 46 versus a loss of 1 06 a year earlier Revenue fell to 8 87 billion from 9 47 billion in the year ago period Analysts had expected Sears to report a loss of 1 10 a share on sales of 9 01 billion The retailer said Kmart comparable store sales dropped 2 1 percent during the period while Sears Domestic declined 0 8 percent and Sears Canada slid 2 5 percent The Hain Celestial Group Inc HAIN The organic products company reported fourth quarter adjusted earnings of 65 cents per share on revenue of 463 5 million compared to Street expectations for earnings of 62 cents per share on sales of 454 7 million For fiscal 2014 Hain Celestial expects earnings of 2 95 to 3 05 per share on revenue of 2 03 billion to 2 05 billion Shares closed Wednesday at 72 90 and rallied in early hours trading Williams Companies Inc WMB Williams Companies raised its third quarter dividend by 17 2 percent from the year ago amount Shareholders of record September 13 will be paid a dividend of 0 3663 per share on September 30 The energy infrastructure company also reaffirmed its full year guidance for 20 percent dividend growth sending shares higher in recent trading Economic Calendar for Thursday August 22 2013 08 30 A M ET Initial Jobless Claims08 30 A M ET Continuing Jobless Claims08 58 A M ET Markit Manufacturing PMI August 09 00 A M ET FHFA Housing Price Index MoM July 10 00 A M ET CB Leading Indicator MoM July 10 30 A M ET EIA Natural Gas Storage change August 16 11 00 A M ET Kansas Fed manufacturing activity August 01 00 P M ET 5 Year TIPS Auction02 00 P M ET Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher speaks 04 30 A M ET Fed Balance Sheet04 30 A M ET Money Supply |
WFC | Homebuilding Stock Outlook August 2013 | The housing market has steadily made a comeback from the lows witnessed from the severe and widespread downturn However the housing momentum seen in 2012 and in the first half of 2013 seems to have moderated somewhat with the recent spike in mortgage rates tight credit availability and a limited supply of land and labor In spite of the recently rising interest rates they are still below historical levels and housing is still very much affordable Thus high affordability levels increased rentals and historically low interest rates are driving the housing momentum In addition accelerating job growth and increasing consumer confidence are boosting demand for new homes Supply however is constrained by low home inventories both for new and existing homes A shortage of land and labor is restricting the construction of homes both single and multifamily Home prices have thus started to move up with market demand gaining momentum and supply remaining limited In fact rising home prices and thinning home inventories have created a sense of urgency among homebuyers who are now more anxious to buy a house before prices shoot up further Most homebuilding companies are resultantly witnessing a significant growth in both volumes and average selling prices ASPs New home orders backlogs number of homes under sales contracts at the end of the year and homes delivered continue to climb year over year Moreover improving homebuilding revenues combined with tight cost control and better overhead leverage as volumes improve are boosting margins for most homebuilders Most homebuilders believe the housing momentum will continue into 2014 The National Association of Home Builders Wells Fargo Housing Market Index HMI known as the homebuilder sentiment index jumped 3 points to 59 in August from 56 in July This was the fourth consecutive monthly increase in the index and was also the strongest increase in almost eight years The jump in the index shows that the recent interest rate hikes have not dampened the housing recovery How Did the Big Players Perform This Quarter It was a mixed Q2 for the homebuilders Among the big homebuilders Lennar Corp LEN and Meritage Homes Corp MTH beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for both revenues and earnings KB Home KB beat on revenues and incurred a narrower loss All the three companies saw increasing demand and pricing in most housing markets despite rising interest rates While D R Horton Inc DHI and The Ryland Group Inc RYL beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings on the back of pricing and margin gains they missed the expectations for revenue Rising interest rates slowed down the order growth for DHI in the latter half of the quarter which we believe hurt the top line PulteGroup Inc PHM was the worst performer this quarter missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate for both earnings and revenues due to declining net order growth OPPORTUNITIESLand as Native Strength Homebuilders like Lennar which have a solid land position are better placed to meet the rising demand for homes during the upturn This gives these companies a competitive edge over peers like Pulte which are facing land availability constraints During the downturn Lennar strategically focused on acquiring new home sites in well positioned markets The company thus has enough land now to satisfy deliveries till through 2014 and is now pursuing land opportunities for 2015 and beyond Its net orders jumped 27 in the second quarter However net orders at Pulte declined 12 in the quarter Pulte s net orders were weak due to a decline in the number of communities The company has been intentionally slowing down sales in the face of land development constraints and a scarcity of finished lots The company is focusing more on driving price and margins rather than pushing up unit volumes Such a strategy we believe has affected net order growth in the quarter Other homebuilders are speeding up their land investments Ryland Group has spent 269 million on land acquisition and 108 million on site development in the first half of 2013 California based homebuilder KB Home invested 575 million in land and land development in the first half nearly three times the investment made in the year ago period The company plans to shell out 1 2 billion and more in land investment in fiscal 2013 Texas based D R Horton s investments in homes under construction land development and finished lots have increased by more than 1 1 billion during the first half of fiscal 2013 following the improved liquidity position from solid sales growth in 2012 High End Homes Driving Prices Most homebuilders like Lennar KB Home and Toll Brothers Inc TOL have shifted their focus on high end communities primarily of California Arizona Colorado and Florida which allow them to sell larger higher priced homes driving the ASPs up Homebuilders like KB Home also target the higher income move up buyers who are more likely to qualify for home loans Pulte is shifting its focus towards its high priced Pulte branded move up homes which improve the overall ASP Another small homebuilder Meritage Homes is also seeing improving selling prices from a mix shift towards move up homes in higher priced communities and states Luxury home builder Toll Brothers is focused on raising the quality and the luxury quotient of its homes thus giving it a competitive advantage Strategic Restructuring Cost Saving Initiatives Most housing companies are striving to improve their operating and financial performance through strategic and restructuring initiatives The initiatives taken include workforce reductions improving overhead leverage managing inventory tightly and implementing new pricing strategies Most homebuilders expect these cost reduction and operating efficiency improvement plans combined with positive housing demand to further boost profitability in the second half of 2013 and 2014 Ancillary Companies Also Stand to Gain Construction material companies Vulcan Materials Company VMC and Eagle Materials Inc EXP and building product makers Masco Corp MAS and Louisiana Pacific Corp LPX are slowly gaining momentum from improving new home demand These companies are also seeing a concomitant rise in demand and volume WEAKNESSESRising Interest Rates Since mid 2012 homebuilders have largely benefited from historically low interest rates eventually leading to the sharp increase in home buying activity With the recent improvement in economic conditions and the housing market in general mortgage interest rates are edging upwards to more normalized levels since May 2013 This has raised concerns among some analysts According to the Freddie Mac mortgage survey the 30 year fixed mortgage rate has risen from 3 59 on May 23 to 4 40 as of Aug 15 High interest rates dilute demand for new homes as mortgage loans become expensive This lowers a buyer s purchasing power As a result we found the share prices of most housing stocks after having peaked in May consequently hurtling down The better than expected earnings at most homebuilders in the reported quarter could not prevent the share slide Rising interest rates notwithstanding some companies like Lennar and KB Home witnessed increasing demand in all their housing markets and were able to push pricing further However others showed some concern D R Horton noted at its fiscal third quarter conference call that the spike in interest rates slowed orders in the back half of its quarter Meritage Homes said it saw a little bit of cooling in July due to higher rates but indicated that demand remained stronger than July 2012 We believe that while interest rates are an important part of the home buying business sustainable increases in housing and housing demand for the long term will require the overall economy to strengthen This means further job growth improving household incomes rising consumer confidence and easing of credit availability None of these factors have shown any substantial improvement so far putting in question the sustainability of the housing momentum Changes in Federal Lending Process Any change in federal lending procedure could also hurt demand for new homes The Federal Reserve is currently buying 85 billion in government bonds and mortgage backed securities per month known as quantitative easing QE to keep interest rates low and boost economic growth However the Fed plans to scale back this bond buying plan by next year and instead adopt a tighter monetary policy to avoid deflation The U S markets tumbled on the news Investor confidence in the overall housing recovery was especially shaken due to concerns of rising interest rates if a tighter monetary policy were to have been implemented However Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke announced plans in July to keep interest rates low for longer The Fed plans to keep the short term interest rates at record lows even if the unemployment rate falls below 6 5 which is the Fed s current benchmark to consider a tighter monetary policy Though Bernanke s comments have put the above concerns to rest at least for some time the overhang still remains Rising Input Costs Rising input costs are a concern due to increasing costs of building material and labor As housing starts accelerate both labor and construction material costs would continue to experience upward pricing pressure impeding margins in the future Interestingly though overall housing starts for multifamily construction rose 5 9 in the month of July those for single family construction declined 2 2 Though unusually wet weather in the South and West pulled down the single family starts rising interest rates tight credit availability and a limited supply of land and labor also had a role to play Zacks Industry Rank Within the Zacks Industry classification we rank all the 260 plus industries in the 16 Zacks sectors based on the earnings outlook and fundamental strength of the constituent companies in each industry To learn more visit About Zacks Industry Rank As a guideline the outlook for industries in the top 1 3rd of all Industry Ranks or a Zacks Industry Rank of 88 and lower is Positive the middle 1 3rd or industries with Zacks Industry Rank between 89 and 176 is Neutral and the bottom 1 3rd or Zacks Industry Rank of 177 and higher is Negative The Zacks Industry Rank for the construction industry is currently 185 This is in the bottom 1 3rd of all industries ranked highlighting the group s near term Negative outlook given the current market situation Even though the housing sector is doing well the negative outlook highlights the increasing concerns over the recent hike in interest mortgage rates and the resultant volatility in the housing sector Earnings Trends The Construction sector depicts stable earnings trends The second quarter 2013 results for the sector have been average in terms of both beat ratios percentage of companies coming out with positive surprises and growth The earnings beat ratio was 54 5 while the revenue beat ratio was 36 4 Total earnings for this sector increased 53 3 reflecting a sharp moderation from 105 2 growth registered in the first quarter We note that comparisons have become difficult considering that the housing industry started to improve steadily from the second quarter of 2012 Total revenue grew 10 1 in the quarter versus a 13 9 jump in the previous quarter The consensus earnings expectations for the rest of the year look encouraging with earnings projected to grow 19 6 in the third quarter of 2013 and 2 6 in the fourth quarter thereby pegging the full year 2013 growth outlook at 38 3 For revenue growth will likely be 10 0 in the September quarter followed by 8 6 in the fourth quarter Full year revenue will likely increase 10 9 Bottom Line Overall the performance of the housing sector was essentially satisfactory Our proprietary Zacks Ranks indicate the movement of the stocks over the short term 1 to 3 months At present respectively 21 58 and 21 stocks sport a positive neutral and negative outlook Stocks which will likely outperform the broader market and currently hold a favorable Zacks Rank 2 Buy include Hovnanian Enterprises Inc HOV Ryland Group Meritage Homes and TRI Pointe Homes Inc TPH We currently are not too enthusiastic on the four stocks in our universe that hold a Zacks Rank 4 Sell or Zacks Rank 5 Strong Sell These stocks include Pulte Consorcio ARA S A B de C V CNRFF M I Homes Inc MHO and Gafisa S A GFA |
WFC | Gold Above The 1400 Hurdle This Week | Friday twas penned on the Prescient Commentary page that Gold s own Baby Blues at Market Trends are rising meaning that the linreg uptrend is reinforcing thus suggesting the 1400s are nigh That was at 04 57 Pacific Time with Gold trading at the 1373 level My sense then was given the uptrend s reinforcement we might crack the 1400s over the ensuing days if not within a week or two for naturally nothing goes up in a straight line But then seeing the price hit 1399 9 late in the day and indeed 1400 4 trade on the February contract twas a reminder that Gold s renewed strength and vigor are the real deal Recall from a week ago all that fat trading support Gold had built for itself in the trading profile chart As a long time friend and trading colleague has been wont to say over the years Well if it isn t gonna go down then it s gonna go up Indeed Also last week we put forth the notion of Gold working higher right up through the 1400s into the 1500s Again twould be normal to first expect a modicum of profit taking by short and near term traders However such common market machinations notwithstanding for you fellow technicians out there not one neither two nary three but four of our Market Rhythms for Gold all flipped from Short to Long on Friday The four were studies of the standard MACD moving average convergence divergence metrics using price bars over the following time frames 1 hour 2 hour 6 hour and 8 hour Tis no wonder the yellow metal put in such a robust session Friday when traders independent of one another acting on differing time frames coincidentally or otherwise all saw a Buy signal at about the same moment Gold went nuts Here s how it looked during real time stock market hours Allow me this one additional technical note Amidst all that Market Rhythm mania I m paying particular attention to the 6 hour bars For in that time frame s MACD study the past 10 crossovers both up and down have seen price follow though on average i e not every time by as much as 32 points and in 5 of the 10 cases by 47 or more points The median duration of those 10 crossovers before crossing back in the other direction was 3 days 21 hours I realize it seems we get quite precise around here but the point is we ve a jolly good chance to see Gold rise well clear of the 1400 hurdle in the new week Recently Gold has taken on that inverse correlation as we ve charted in many a missive to the sputtering S P As well Gold has been ascending since mid year with the long end of the yield curve Still Gold is oft viewed as a non correlating asset there are broad based times when it moves in stride with the S P or against it With respect to interest rates tis pretty much the same Gold having displayed broad based periods of being in both positive or negative correlation with the trending of yields Macro economically there s always more the story in rationalizing the why But at the end of the day Gold is most proven to be positively correlated to the supply of money To be sure the markets these days are all a buzz about the FedSpeak of their potentially tapering quantitative easing and again at the long end rates have well been rising Can that put the kibosh on the apparent recent economic growth thus in turn keeping QE right on coming Consider the following If from the Montgomery Street side you enter the San Francisco world headquarters of Wells Fargo Co you pass through a museum featuring the bank s iconic genuine stagecoach as well as some tools precious metal ore and dust and other artifacts from California s Gold Rush era And if you re old enough to remember it that swooning tune behind decades of the company s advertisments comes to mind Ah those western days of the mighty Wells Fargo and Gold Are the two still mighty today We calculate Wells Fargo WFC to be the 10th highest capitalization weighted constituent in the S P 500 with a respectable price earnings ratio 11 4x and yield 2 825 almost exactly that of the 10 year Treasury Note 2 818 Likewise we ve Gold now at 1396 some 18 higher than twas a mere 39 trading days ago from that 28 June low 1179 So yes tis fairly impressive might displayed by these two one might say Except for the bank there s a problem rising long end interest rates since July of a year ago and more adroitly so just since this past April have so slowed the bank s mortgage refinancing business that they ve just announced they re bidding adieu to 2 300 of their employees As further evidence of economic debilitation by higher yields twas reported Friday that July s new homes sales plunged by the most in more than three years mortgage rates being on the rise Given that mortgages are priced off the long end of the yield curve July 2012 s yield on the 30 year Treasury Bond reached as low as 2 452 Then just since April tis leapt from as low as 2 810 to Friday s settle at 3 798 up with the yield down with the refis out with the workers A nominal rate of 3 may not seem like much on the long end but it shows just how sharp a knife edge upon which the economy is poised This is why we ve regularly emphasized that following any tapering or withdrawal of QE twill be followed by more QE Can you say Gold Positive Further consider that the average yield on the Bond from 1994 to date monthly settles is 5 036 What if rates regress back up to that mean Savings accounts might come back into vogue But what then happens to the corporate cost of money Earnings per share which on balance continue to terribly lag equity prices are calculated after interest expense Can you say S P Negative Then there is our average Joe with his 401k and all that variable rate consumer debt But perhaps he s not really that worried having benefited from the S P s more than doubling since the Black Swan Event of 2008 As for that 5 long end interest rate mean tis just that It can get meaner the Bond s yield in November 1994 practically tapped 8 in September 1981 it exceeded 15 the Prime Rate beginning that year above 21 So again from the historical perspective of nominal levels having moved from the lowly 2 s up into the 3 s doesn t appear like much of a big deal but tis a 50 increase and entire capitalization structures and lives have been built and are dependent upon such seemingly low nominal rates Interest rates are nothing more than the cost of money and with the Fed ECB BOE BOJ and even the PBC having in recent years printed trillions of faux dough currency units you know the old saying When there s a lot of something tis probably worth nothing But then taper the creation of money some deem it worth a bit more and thus its cost rises Nonetheless taper is not withdrawal and regardless as to whether the Fed has the attachments large enough to tamper quantitative easing with a little taper it still remains QE and in turn ought further increase the price of Gold Now finally let us get to some charts Regular readers know we d been on the watch for the yield in the 10 Year T Note to surpass the yield of the S P 500 which of course commenced back in June As noted above the 10 year yield today is 2 818 whilst that of the S P is 2 124 Obviously the inverse arithmetic effect of rising yields is falling debt prices and now with an inferior yield on equities money too is departing the stock market For both the Bond and S P here are their respective daily bars for the last 21 trading days one month incorporating their linear regression trend lines the consistency of such trends becoming more negatively firm per their declining Baby Blues Enough on the losers Now let us turn to the winners Here are the same 21 days for this COMEX metals triumvirate And next here specifically is Gold itself the fresh parabolic Long trend having completed week No 2 A week ago we compared the above parabolics study with that of the Dollar expectedly showing that they re hardly in perfect negative correlation and as herein pointed out on occasion Gold and the Dollar both rose by better than 10 during the first six months of 2010 But to further exemplify just how oversold Gold became relative to the rising Dollar in recent months below we ve these two markets daily closes from one year ago to date The keys are the R squared calculations which are the foundation for building the Baby Blues measurements of trend consistency Given that R squared cannot mathematically exceed 1 0000 Gold s reading of 0 8664 is far more consistently negative than is the Dollar s 0 4454 positive consistency Of course Gold s negative consistency is now clearly waning and as was pointed out last week if you look across the breadth of the chart the Dollar is essentially right where twas one year ago at which time Gold was at 1673 almost 300 points above today s level Therefore with Gold having so much more ground to make to the upside let s remind ourselves of the structural road ahead Meanwhile not surprisingly over these last two weeks Gold has worked to the highest level since 21 September some 11 months ago above its smooth pearly valuation line established from price changes relative to those in the BEGOS markets complex that comprises the Bond Euro Gold Oil S P Here are the last 63 daily closes or three months you can see back a full year at our Market Values and or Gold page Now per the oscillator price less value at the foot of the above chart ought being 89 points above valuation be considered extreme Generally when the reading gets to 50 points either side of valuation we anticipate some reversal of direction however when Gold gets on the move as currently tis why on 22 August 2011 at its All Time Closing High of 1900 twas 311 points above valuation Gold s worst downside deviation from valuation in the last 12 years was 248 points this past 15 April in the midst of the Great Gold Selling n Shorting Spree Regardless of normal market ebb and flow we remain mindful of Gold s having produced those four MACD positive crossovers on Friday as mentioned and thus the uptrend being our friend we look for price to further ascend As we glide into this week s close with a look at Gold s updated trading profile how curious it all is out there Again as knife edge fragile as they may be western economies are purportedly improving our own Economic Barometer having been a testament to StateSide growth since May And thus in this 180 out of phase world rising economies have become stock market negatives due to talk of QE tapering and now rising interest rates In the background Gold is taking it all in ultimately toward scoring the biggest win Here s the profile the Golden Swath therein representative of Friday s trade alone Now that s the sign of a happy healthy positive market Tuesday brings U S Consumer Confidence Are you as confident as we saw Joe to be up there Then Thursday we get the first revision to Q2 GDP which is expected to be higher Don t tell the Wells Fargo departees that |
CMCSA | Lyft asks judge to stop Uber s witchhunt for trade secrets | By Heather Somerville and Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO Reuters Ride service Lyft on Thursday asked a U S judge to prevent its biggest rival Uber from making further demands for confidential information as part of a case about a data breach that affected as many as 50 000 Uber drivers In court documents filed in the litigation Lyft called Uber s data request an attempt to conduct its own witch hunt and to dig into its competitor s internal confidential and trade secret information Lyft s motion marks the startup s public entry into a civil lawsuit over the May 2014 data breach which Uber has tied to a Lyft employee Uber has subpoenaed a wide breadth of information from the Lyft employee including communications with any Uber drivers and passengers web browsing activity around the time of the hack and documents related to any scraped crawled spidered copied downloaded or otherwise accessed from Uber s computers servers or services
The employee has not been named in court documents but two sources told Reuters in October the Comcast O CMCSA IP address that had access to a security key used in the breach was assigned to Lyft s technology chief Chris Lambert |
CMCSA | Romania approves extradition of convicted hacker Guccifer to U S | By Radu Sorin Marinas BUCHAREST Reuters Romania s top court has approved a request by U S authorities to extradite a convicted hacker known as Guccifer a source within Romania s DIICOT anti organized crime and terrorism unit told Reuters on Friday The court approved an 18 month temporary extradition to America for the hacker This follows a request made by U S authorities the source said A Romanian justice ministry spokeswoman said details of the extradition request had not yet been made public The U S Justice Department said in 2014 that a U S federal grand jury had indicted Marcel Lazar Lehel on charges of wire fraud unauthorized access to a protected computer aggravated identity theft cyberstalking and obstruction of justice The United States accuses Lehel known by aliases including Guccifer and Small Fume of stealing data from email and social media accounts of U S celebrities and politicians Lehel was sentenced by a Romanian court to four years in jail in 2014 for illegally accessing email accounts of public figures with the aim of getting confidential data and is serving another three year term for other offences That case focused only on Lehel s activities in Romania prosecutors have said His victims included former secret service chief George Maior and other Romanian officials Lehel uploaded documents to a U S website The Smoking Gun saying there he had used methods including guessing the answers to security questions to access accounts at Facebook NASDAQ FB Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA AOL Inc and other companies The hacker Guccifer shot to fame in 2013 after he claimed responsibility for hacking into George W Bush family emails and posted artwork by the former president including self portraits in the bathtub
He also distributed emails exchanged by former U S Secretary of State Colin Powell and Corina Cretu a Romanian member of the European Parliament prompting Powell to deny the two had an affair |
WFC | Illinois and Chicago eye Wells Fargo business bans | CHICAGO Reuters Wells Fargo Co N WFC faces possible bans from doing business with the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois in the wake of its sales scandal that erupted earlier this month Alderman Edward Burke who heads the Chicago City Council s finance committee introduced an ordinance on Friday that would suspend the bank from acting in several capacities including as a municipal depository bond underwriter and financial adviser The city council should not engage in any business for the next two years with this institution that has deceived defrauded and duped its customers Burke said in a statement Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs set a Monday news conference to announce plans to suspend billions of dollars in investment activity with Wells Fargo according to an advisory from his office on Friday Wells Fargo staff opened checking savings and credit card accounts without customer say so for years to satisfy managers demand for new business according to a 190 million settlement with regulators reached on Sept 8 The bank said it fired 5 300 employees over the issue On Wednesday California State Treasurer John Chiang announced a sweeping suspension of the state s business relationships with Wells Fargo for the next 12 months The bank is also under pressure from Oregon s treasurer to reform its management structure and executive compensation U S lawmakers called on Thursday for Wells Fargo chief John Stumpf to resign and a top House Democrat demanded the bank be broken up because it is too big to manage Chicago s finance committee is scheduled to take up the proposed ordinance on Wednesday The city has paid Wells Fargo 19 45 million in fees since 2005 according to the committee The bank served as senior underwriter on five Chicago bond issues totaling nearly 969 million since 2006 according to Thomson Reuters data Wells Fargo made the list of 15 senior underwriters tapped by Illinois this month for bond sales over the next three years A spokeswoman for Governor Bruce Rauner declined to comment on whether his office is rethinking Wells Fargo s selection |
WFC | Exclusive Wells Fargo account scandal extends to small business U S senator | NEW YORK Reuters Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co s account scandal is not limited to its consumer banking sector U S Senator David Vitter told the bank s chief executive in a letter
Thousands of small business owners were also impacted by Wells Fargo s practices wrote Vitter a Republican from Louisiana in a letter dated Sept 29 to Wells Fargo chief executive John Stumpf and seen by Reuters
Vitter demanded a full accounting of small business owners affected by fraudulent activity Around 10 000 small business accounts were affected by improper Wells practices people familiar with the matter said |
WFC | Cheap Munis Not Detroit | We thank Michael Wilson of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and FactSet Research Systems for a compilation of returns Michael s commentary in July talked about how There was no place to hide in fixed income We agree although we think hedging dampened volatility so that the damage was minimized Michael s compilation of returns from May 1 2013 close to the June lows in various markets reveals that all categories of fixed income had negative returns during this brief less than two month period of time The returns were as follows bank loans down 0 45 US short term down 1 34 US Treasuries down 3 46 US high yield down 4 48 international bonds down 4 71 global high yield bonds down 5 04 US municipals down 5 47 US investment grade down 6 30 global inflation linked down 8 15 US TIPS down 9 73 and emerging market debt down 13 05 Clearly bonds suffered a rout Any bondholder who looked at the June 30 2013 statements saw the effect of the global sell off in fixed income The sell off did not happen in the US alone and it was not unique to a specific sector There was a broad and wholesale abandonment of fixed income markets The strategic impact was to force liquidation by holders hedge funds mutual funds and institutional structured finance All the action was on the sell side The construction is simple When mutual funds as a group are getting redemptions all of them become sellers That is what happened in the bond sell off There were also some hedge funds and structured finance agents in some bond dealer supported institutions that failed and had to be forced or liquidated Rumors exacerbated the sell off When such bond sell offs occur buyers stand aside and let the blood flow We were one of those Now what happens after this rout Bond markets start to recover things start to normalize and liquidity returns to the markets There are now questions about institutional liquidity because of rule changes dealing with the capital necessary for banks and dealers to support their inventories Essentially liquidity provided by that capital is dry and the basis on which inventory positions can be held by dealers is limited In our view this situation creates tremendous opportunity in some of the bond market sectors We have written many times about how the highest grade US tax free municipal bonds are being priced in outrageous bargain structures The entire curve of tax free municipal bonds is now trading above the yields of taxable US Treasury obligations We are making this comparison using the MMD scale versus the Treasury scale We examine and compare these measures every day We look at the spreads between tax free and taxable bonds and compare them at the highest credit quality This we do in order to remove the issue of default or credit risk from the calculation We are not talking about comparing Detroit tax free bonds with Treasury bonds There is no comparison Detroit is a mess in default the latest poster child of financial trouble The Treasury is a riskless US obligation subject only to political whim with regard to the extension of the debt limit We presume that the US Treasury obligation is default free We have obtained permission to post Natalie Cohen s Wells Fargo excellent analysis on Detroit as a guest piece in the Special Reports section of our website The link is Readers may find this superb work of assistance as they sort through Detroit related issues We also have our research colleague Michael Comes Bloomberg Radio interview about Detroit on our website The link is Let s get back to the matter of Munis being very cheap Take the true and natural AAA credits available in the municipal bond market and compare them with Treasuries The tax free bonds yield more than the taxable Treasuries do These bonds come from a sector category or subsector of tax free municipal bonds that have a history of zero defaults in the last century The comparison is almost as close as apples to apples The US Treasury obligation is technically a superior credit to a natural AAA tax free municipal bond but not superior by very much History is 100 on the bond buyer s side when it comes to this debate What do we mean by a true and natural AAA credit An example might be bonds issued by the state of Utah Those bonds have particular budget coverage and requirements under Utah law furthermore they have an unblemished history of making all payments in a timely way It is almost inconceivable that the state of Utah would default on the true AAA credit of its state s general obligation bond Another example of a tax free bond in that category would be an education bond issued by Yale University also a true AAA credit Let s think about it for a minute The university has been there for centuries and has a huge endowment fund Its credentials as an academic institution are paramount and well established It is almost inconceivable that Yale University would default on its debt obligations Well financed as it is Yale does issue bonds under certain structures There are Yale tax free education bonds When you compare the performance of Yale the state of Utah and similar credits with the US Treasury curve you are very nearly comparing apples to apples in terms of their creditworthiness The present pricing of tax free bonds makes sense only if we happen to think that the income tax code of the US is going to be repealed The present market dysfunction is irrational Such pricing would work only if there were no advantages to a tax free bond versus a taxable bond Only dysfunction can explain why these high grade tax free bonds are yielding more than the taxable Treasury securities Now we know without a doubt that the tax code is not going to be repealed We also know that taxes on incomes falling in the middle and upper income tax brackets in the US have gone up by a large amount In addition investors are now subject to the 3 8 ObamaCare tax on top of other taxes that may be particular to individuals in various jurisdictions What is causing this dysfunctional pricing in the market There are two different sets of investors that determine these bond prices In the US about 20 or 25 million Americans determine the price at which they will buy or sell a tax free municipal bond They compare it with other investments and make judgments individually They are the portion of our population that pays higher taxes The other 90 of Americans ignore tax free municipal bonds They do not think about them The US Treasury curve and its interest rates on the other hand are determined by the entire world An investor in Singapore or Dubai is attuned to the yields and term structures of US Treasury obligations however those investors have usually ignored the US tax free municipal bond market That is no longer entirely true There is evidence that some sophisticated bond buyers outside the US are purchasing tax free municipal bonds because the raw yield is higher than that of Treasuries Such investors believe that sooner or later the present dysfunctional pricing will return to a more normal spread Logic would suggest that a high grade tax free bond should yield less than a taxable Treasury bond It usually has in the past and is likely to do so again in the future Between now and then we are seizing on this bargain provided to us by market dysfunction The bond market sell off was a rout It rattled and terrified investors and the process of healing is still underway Tax free municipals in the US high credit categories are very cheap BY David R Kotok |
WFC | Homebuilder Shares Point To Lost Momentum In Residential Construction | Since the talk of scaling down the Fed s securities purchase program started homebuilder shares have been underperforming the broader market That underperformance has in fact increased over the last few days in spite of strong homebuilder optimism numbers This seems to contradict the fact that US house sales in total dollar terms are now at record levels And D R Horton the largest US homebuilder by volume recently beat analysts earnings estimates with strong construction volume and higher prices charged Homebuilder D R Horton Inc DHI reported a better than expected profit as it sold more homes at higher prices in quarter ended June Demand for homes has remained strong despite a recent rise in mortgage rates as a shortage of homes available for sale has enabled builders to raise prices D R Horton which sells homes priced between 100 000 and 600 000 said average selling price rose 15 percent in the third quarter Orders a key indicator for builders who do not book revenue until they finish a house rose 12 percent to 6 822 homes The market yawned in response with DHI shares still down 25 in the past 3 months What s going on According to D R Horton s there is no question that higher rates have affected demand Homebuilders have seen a slowdown in order growth PulteGroup PHM based in Bloomfield Hills Michigan said second quarter orders fell 12 percent on a lower community count D R Horton said orders increased 12 percent which was below analysts forecast for 28 percent growth according to Adam Rudiger an analyst at Wells Fargo Co in Boston Rising mortgage rates contributed to increased cancellations and a dropoff in traffic in June according to Fort Worth Texas based D R Horton Borrowing costs have surged in the past two months on expectations that the Federal Reserve will scale back bond purchases The 30 year average fixed mortgage rate was 4 31 percent in the week ended today up from a near record low of 3 35 percent in May Freddie Mac said We got our first indication today that consumers are feeling the effect of rising rates on their purchasing power Peter Martin a San Francisco based analyst with JMP Securities LLC said in a telephone interview Orders are rising but not nearly as fast as was implied by stock valuations The equity markets have priced in a significant momentum in residential construction growth over the past couple of years Now higher mortgage rates are taking some of that momentum out which is showing up in homebuilder underperformance It s an interesting consideration for the Fed as the September decision on securities purchases looms large |
WFC | US Trade Deficit Narrowed In June | The US trade deficit was narrowed in June reaching a three and a half year low It dropped by 22 4 per cent to 34 2 billion 22 3 billion in June which is the smallest gap since October 2009 and is a further good sign for the nation s economic recovery The Commerce Department confirmed that the percentage contraction for the month was also the largest since February 2009 May s trade shortfall which was previously reported to be 45 billion was revised to 44 1 billion while speculation has risen that the US government could up its growth forecasts All else being equal this could mean a net upward revision worth about 0 8 percentage points and take second quarter growth to 2 5 per cent said Wells Fargo economist Tim Quinlan Imports of goods and services were shown to be down by 2 5 per cent in June to 225 4 billion The US economy remains the largest in the world but it is being caught by China Find up to date information on the FTSE 100 and spread betting strategies at City IndexDisclosure FX Solutions assumes no responsibility for errors inaccuracies or omissions in these materials FX Solutions does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of the information text graphics links or other items contained within these materials FX Solutions shall not be liable for any special indirect incidental or consequential damages including without limitation losses lost revenues or lost profits that may result from these materials The products offered by FX Solutions are leveraged products which carry a high level of risk to your capital with the possibility of losing more than your initial investment and may not be suitable for all investors Ensure you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent advice if necessary |
WFC | Is Washington DC Holding Back Small Business And A Recovery | Put aside everything else that streams across the daily news wire there is no doubt that the prevailing issue that causes the most concern for people in our nation is how they are putting bread on the table Yes we can dispense with all the noise that spews forth from far too many sources the issue that is most prominent to our economic well being remains JOBS JOBS JOBS Regrettably any meaningfully robust review of our overall employment situation shows that we we are when it comes to improvement on the jobs front Certainly more and more people are working part time or are trying to make ends meet while self employed but would prefer a stable job with a steady paycheck So the question begs why aren t businesses and especially small businesses hiring Let s navigate As Bluntly the jobs picture is not improving despite what you hear in the news and it will get worse Yes businesses are sitting on billions of dollars in cash and productivity gains and the stock market has been rallying But those businesses are hoarding that cash because they still lack that all important state of mind and spirit confidence Here Gallup s findings aren t much more promising America s 6 million small businesses are by far the biggest drivers of new job creation Yet earlier this year the Wells Fargo Gallup Small Business Index found 30 of small business owners say they re not hiring because they re worried they may no longer be in business in 12 months Moreover new business startups driven by entrepreneurs confidence have fallen below 400 000 per year in my estimate and the country needs a bare minimum of 1 million new startups annually to fix the employment problem No confidence no startups no growth no jobs Talk about insecurity Ouch but oh so real when businesses know that they are not only battling the competition but Washington as well How so What s damaging business confidence Perhaps readers may care to share this data with your elected representatives as they come home for a 5 week vacation having recently made sure that their to meet their own expected increase in healthcare premiums under Obamacare Isn t self dealing and sticking the taxpayer with the bill great |
CMCSA | Will The FCC s Proposed Price Regulation Affect BDS Market | The Business Data Services BDS market where telecom and cable multi service operators MSO provide a host of different network related services to business entities of different sizes have been a lucrative source of revenues in the recent years for telecoms and cable MSO s Notably these service providers have been gaining generous revenues from the small and medium businesses SMB by often charging high prices
As per the Consumer Federation of America the trend has led to overcharging of services to the tune of 75 billion in the past five years Consequently the Federal Communications Commission FCC has proposed rules to regulate pricing in the market citing low competition However such proposals have been criticized by the industry players except for certain smaller companies like Sprint Corp NYSE S and T Mobile US Inc NYSE T
Recent Trend
BDS market was dominated by telecom players like AT T Inc NYSE T and CenturyLink Inc NYSE T However lucrative revenues and growth prospects of this particular industry has attracted many cable MSO s of late with Charter Communications Inc NYSE T and Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA Corporation NYSE S jumping on the bandwagon to provide data related services to the SMB s This has resulted in significant fiber investments across the country even in the rural regions to reach out to businesses
Notably the cable MSO s have been focusing in this particular segment after facing depressing revenues in their video service offering Thus both the cable MSO s and telecom operators now have a substantial exposure to this segment
Reaction to the Proposal
Industry response of this FCC proposal has been outright negative Telecom players contend that after the influx of cable MSO s in the market the competition has increased Additionally it highlighted that lower pricing would restrain them from deploying future technologies such as 5G wireless services The cable MSO s too share a similar view as they pointed out that regulating prices would lower return on investment acting as a deterrent for future fiber investment
The Bottom Line
While the whole industry lobbies to stop the regulation coming into effect we must note that a price regulation will certainly help the small businesses which often face high charges for using data services However if FCC does go in favor of a regulation the network footprint expansion across the country will be impacted especially in rural areas This can affect the smooth functioning of their business operations |
WFC | U S says Wells Fargo to pay 400 000 to settle charges over swaps | WASHINGTON Reuters Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Bank has settled federal charges over inaccurate large trader reports for physical commodity swaps positions the U S Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Tuesday ordering the firm to pay a 400 000 penalty
In a statement the CFTC said Wells Fargo must also cease and desist from committing further violations of U S regulations as part of the order filed and settled on Tuesday |
WFC | Wells Fargo plans to eliminate sales goals sooner than planned | Reuters Embattled Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co plans to eliminate sales goals for its retail banking business sooner than planned according to prepared remarks its chief executive officer will deliver at a congressional hearing on Thursday Wells Fargo is under pressure to show it is holding top brass accountable after government investigators discovered that employees opened as many as 2 million accounts without customers knowledge in order to meet sales targets On Tuesday Wells Fargo said CEO John Stumpf will forfeit unvested equity awards worth about 41 million and will not get a salary while the company s board investigates the bank s sales practices The third largest U S bank will eliminate the goals by Oct 1 earlier than its previous target of Jan 1 2017 according to the remarks which were obtained by Reuters Stumpf will appear before the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday The San Francisco based bank agreed to pay 190 million earlier this month to settle regulatory charges over the account scandal and has fired about 5 300 employees most of them low ranking staff in connection with it Carrie Tolstedt the former head of the retail division at the center of the burgeoning sales scandal will get no severance and forfeited unvested equity awards worth about 19 million the bank said Tolstedt left the company before her planned Dec 31 retirement date Stumpf and Tolstedt will also not receive bonuses for 2016 The penalties represent one of the biggest financial sanctions ever levied against a major bank boss and mark a sharp change from a few years ago when no CEO had to give back a bonus despite scandals at large banks A special committee of the bank s independent directors will lead an investigation into the retail bank s sales practices helped by the board s human resources committee and law firm Shearman Sterling LLP according to the bank We are deeply concerned by these matters and we are committed to ensuring that all aspects of the company s business are conducted with integrity transparency and oversight Stephen Sanger the board s lead independent director said Stumpf a member of the board has recused himself from the investigation the bank said
Wells Fargo stock added 0 2 percent to 45 19 Up to Tuesday s close shares had fallen nearly 10 percent since Sept 8 when it reached a settlement with regulators wiping off about 24 billion of market capitalization |
WFC | Wells Fargo workers say they were fired for reporting gaming of sales quotas | By Sarah N Lynch WASHINGTON Reuters At least five Wells Fargo NYSE WFC employees have sued the bank or filed complaints with regulators alleging that they were fired after reporting the opening of customer accounts without their permission according to a Reuters review of lawsuits and complaints to the U S Labor Department The suits and complaints filed between 2010 and 2014 raise questions about how early Wells Fargo knew about such allegations and how it handled them Wells Fargo was ordered to pay 190 million in fines and restitution this month after regulators said its high pressure sales environment led to the opening of as many as 2 million customer accounts that customers may not have authorized Wells Fargo spokeswoman Richele Messick declined to comment on the employees allegations but said the bank takes measures to protect team members from retaliation One of the fired employees was Birinder Kaur Shankar a former Colorado based customer sales representative who in July 2014 filed a complaint with the Labor Department s Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA She claimed that the bank retaliated against her after she reported in 2013 that local managers were pressuring employees to engage in gaming the bank s sales quotas by opening unauthorized accounts In the complaint reviewed by Reuters Shankar alleged that service managers branch managers and district managers were well versed in the art of creative selling and that customer sales staffers had direct orders to mislead customers Little did I know that my complaints to the ethics hotline of Wells Fargo Bank on these practices would be openly and directly conveyed to the very managers who would then start collecting write up data on me she wrote Shankar settled with the bank in 2015 for an undisclosed sum according to Labor Department records Shankar declined to comment citing a confidentiality agreement that was a condition of her settlement Another former Wells personal banker Claudia Ponce de Leon filed an OSHA complaint in December 2011 alleging that the bank made it virtually impossible for branch employees to meet ambitious quotas without cheating Ponce de Leon was promoted to become a branch general manager in Pomona California in June 2011 and discovered employees were engaged in excessive gaming according to the complaint Shortly after she raised concerns about the practice she was terminated without cause according to her complaint Nearly five years later her attorney Yosef Peretz said she has only received sporadic communications from OSHA and has not been interviewed by investigators Only recently did OSHA show more interest he said I heard from them very recently after this whole mess with Wells Fargo he said Labor Department spokeswoman Amanda McClure did not provide comments in response to questions from Reuters about how OSHA handled the Wells Fargo complaints Labor Secretary Thomas Perez told Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren in a Sept 26 letter that his office now plans a top to bottom review of all allegations that the department has received concerning Wells Fargo Two other clients of Peretz former personal bankers Yesenia Guitron and Judi Klosek also filed OSHA complaints as well as a joint federal lawsuit in 2010 claiming Wells Fargo retaliated against them for blowing the whistle on similar conduct Guitron alleged that managers responded by falsifying a paper trail that purported to document her poor performance forbidding her from taking family medical leave and firing her improperly Klosek said the bank improperly gave away her position while she was on disability to receive treatment for breast cancer The bank did not rehire her when she sought other positions according to her complaint A federal judge ultimately dismissed all of Guitron s claims against the bank saying Wells Fargo was justified for firing her because she failed to meet sales quotas and refused to meet with management Guitron said she feels vindicated by the sanctions against Wells Fargo but remains upset that some of the people who she alleges retaliated against her still work at the bank If Wells Fargo wanted to make it right I would say those people need to go she said The judge dismissed Klosek s retalition claims but upheld her contention that she was discriminated against based on her disability She settled with the bank on terms that were not disclosed Reuters was not able to locate Klosek for comment Julie Tishkoff a former employee who worked as an administrative assistant to a regional bank president made similar claims in a state lawsuit in 2011 She alleged that she reported fraudulent banking practices as far back as November 2005 involving bank employees forging customer signatures and fraudulently opening accounts Tishkoff said the bank instituted a four year campaign of retaliation that included attacking her job performance and public criticism according to the lawsuit Messick the Wells Fargo spokeswoman said the bank had settled the case in 2012 Attorneys for Tiskoff did not immediately respond to requests for comment |
WFC | Wells Fargo fined 24 million over servicemember loans | Reuters Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co was fined about 24 million on Thursday by federal regulators for alleged violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act piling more pressure on the bank already embroiled in a sales abuse scandal Wells Fargo Bank doing business as Wells Fargo Dealer Services agreed to pay more than 4 1 million after the Justice Department alleged it repossessed 413 cars owned by servicemembers without obtaining a court order The unit of Wells Fargo also agreed to change its policies the department said Separately the bank was fined 20 million for violating the same act by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency The bank violated three separate provisions of the act between about 2006 and 2016 the regulator which did a separate investigation said Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf on Thursday faced U S lawmakers calls to resign during his second trip to Capitol Hill for his handling of the sales abuses where staff opened as many as 2 million accounts in customers names without their authorization The San Francisco based bank has agreed to pay 190 million earlier this month to settle regulatory charges over the scandal and has fired about 5 300 employees
Wells Fargo shares closed down 2 07 percent at 44 37 on Thursday They have lost nearly 11 percent or about 27 billion in market value since Sept 7 the last trading day before the scandal broke |
WFC | Post Market News Yahoo Dell Lennar Onyx Tesla Motors SHFL | Post Market Update Stocks that traded actively in U S markets on Tuesday include Yahoo Inc NASDAQ YHOO Dell Inc NASDAQ DELL PulteGroup Inc NYSE PHM Lennar Corporation NYSE LEN Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc NASDAQ ONXX Tesla Motors Inc NASDAQ TSLA Bally Technologies Inc NYSE BYI SHFL entertainment Inc NASDAQ SHFL Market Levels U S Dow 15451 80 0 21 S P 500 1675 60 0 41 NASDAQ 3598 50 0 25 Europe CAC 3851 03 0 72 DAX 8201 05 0 41 FTSE 6556 35 0 45 Asia Pacific Australia 4986 00 0 10 China 2065 72 0 31 Hong Kong 21312 38 0 04 Japan 14599 12 0 64 Metals Gold 1290 40 0 54 Silver 19 94 0 48 Copper 3 19 1 34 Energy Crude Oil 106 00 0 30 Natural Gas 3 68 0 08 Commodities Corn 5 10 1 44 Soya Bean 12 86 1 78 Wheat 6 69 0 01 Currency EUR USD 1 3163 0 77 GBP USD 1 5155 0 36 USD JPY 99 1100 0 75 10 year US Treasury 2 532 0 005 U S markets fall Stocks closed modestly lower with the S P 500 INDEXSP INX snapping an eight day winning streak following a mixed batch of corporate earnings Investors were also cautious ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke s semi annual congressional testimony on Wednesday On the economic front industrial production rose 0 3 percent in June following an unchanged reading in May Economists were expecting a gain of 0 2 percent The Dow Jones Industrial Average INDEXDJX DJI dropped 32 41 points or 0 2 to 15 451 85 while the S P 500 INDEXSP INX fell 6 24 points or 0 4 to 1 676 26 The NASDAQ INDEXNASDAQ IXIC lost 8 99 points or 0 3 to 3 598 50 Stocks in News Yahoo Inc NASDAQ YHOO Yahoo Inc NASDAQ YHOO posted second quarter earnings excluding items of 35 cents a share 5 cents above the average analyst estimate Revenue edged 1 percent lower to 1 07 billion compared to expectations for 1 08 billion In addition the internet company projected third quarter adjusted revenue that come in below Street s expectations sending shares lower in post market trading Dell Inc NASDAQ DELL Shares fell in trade following reports that the tech company may delay its July 18 shareholder vote on a 24 4 billion buyout offer from founder Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake by about a week A Dell spokesman declined to comment PulteGroup Inc NYSE PHM Lennar Corporation NYSE LEN PulteGroup Inc NYSE PHM Lennar Corporation NYSE LEN Hovnanian Enterprises Inc NYSE HOV Toll Brothers Inc NYSE TOLL and D R Horton Inc NYSE DHI all gained in trade after homebuilder confidence jumped in July to its highest level since January 2006 The NAHB Wells Fargo Housing Market index increased to 57 in July from a revised 51 in June Analysts had projected the index to remain flat at its originally reported June level of 52 Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc NASDAQ ONXX Shares of the biopharmaceutical company rallied on Tuesday after attracting acquisition interest from nearly five drug makers including Amgen Inc NASDAQ AMGN and Pfizer Inc NYSE PFE Onyx put itself up for sale late last month after rejecting an unsolicited buyout offer from Amgen that valued the company at 120 a share or about 8 7 billion Tesla Motors Inc NASDAQ TSLA The electric carmaker which joined the Nadsaq 100 index on Monday suffered its worst one day drop since January 2012 following a bearish note from a Goldman Sachs analyst Patrick Archambault said the stock is overvalued and likely worth about 83 well below current levels Tesla shares have rocketed 250 this year after reporting profits that caught many on Wall Street by surprise Bally Technologies Inc NYSE BYI SHFL entertainment Inc NASDAQ SHFL Bally Technologies Inc NYSE BYI has agreed to acquire fellow gambling equipment maker SHFL entertainment Inc NASDAQ SHFL for about 1 3 billion in cash to gain a foothold in the growing casino industry in Asia and Australia Shareholders of SHFL will receive 23 25 a share a 24 premium to the stocks closing price on Monday The deal is expected to close by the second quarter of 2014 |
WFC | June Was A Rough Month For Housing Construction | Residential construction in the US tumbled last month according to the Census Bureau s Housing starts dropped a hefty 9 9 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate 836 000 the lowest since last August The decline was substantially below and the red ink is compounded by the fact that newly issued building permits also retreated retreating by 7 5 vs May One theory for what happened is that wet weather in June played the spoiler and kept building activity low A more ominous view is that higher interest rates are taking a toll What s clear is that starts and permits have run into headwinds in recent months and June was no exception The damage is also infecting the year over year comparisons The annual pace for both starts and permits has fallen substantially this year Indeed the 10 4 gain in starts last month vs the year earlier level is the slowest rate of growth since 2011 Is The Housing Recovery Over Maybe but it s still premature to say so with much confidence even if today s data looks like a smoking gun A more plausible scenario at least for now is that the rebound in housing is transitioning to a lower speed As I ve noted in the past it s always been na ve to expect that the 20 to 40 year over year increases in the recent past would be sustainable Those hefty increases reflected an extraordinary period that was a largely a byproduct after a lengthy correction that probably went on for too long Demographic driven demand kept inching forward even when the homebuilding industry went into hibernation after the housing crash of 2006 2009 There was a false start in 2010 to deliver more supply but it faltered A year later a second leg of the rebound commenced leading to a relatively robust increase in building activity I wondered if the housing recovery was the real deal As it turned out it was and probably still is But the low hanging fruit has been picked Granted there s a bit more risk these days for projecting that the housing recovery will roll on On that note the next round of monthly updates may be critical for deciding if we re downshifting to a lesser rate of growth vs moving into a period that s considerably darker for housing Slow GrowthFor now I m inclined to favor the lower pace of growth scenario Why One encouraging trend is the labor market which is still growing moderately as it has been for some time In fact a broad set of economic and financial indicators continue to trend positive with regards to estimating the business cycle for the US Meanwhile confidence in the home building industry continues to rise with the posting its third consecutive monthly gain and its highest reading since January of 2006 And despite the recent pop in interest rates mortgage rates remain close to historic lows The national average for the conventional 30 year fixed mortgage last week was around 4 5 That s roughly a two year high but otherwise we re still at levels unseen in decades The price of financing the purchase of a house in other words is still inexpensive by The risk of course is that interest rates rise too much too fast from here on out A sudden turn for the worse in payrolls would be disturbing as well Suffice to say there are many things could wrong for housing and we shouldn t be blind to those possibilities But stepping back and considering the broad macro picture as currently known still leaves plenty of room for anticipating that moderate growth is still the likely scenario for the near term Yes that big picture trend can and will change In fact it s always in flux and it s possible we re at a critical juncture in the here and now But the bigger danger is confusing noise with a change in the overall trend How will you know the difference Let s just say that a higher level of clarity requires more than a few weak months in the housing data |
CMCSA | Banned narco soap overtaken by Venezuela s real life scandal | By Alexandra Ulmer and Andrew Cawthorne CARACAS Reuters It reads like a typical Latin American soap opera two relatives of Venezuela s president were caught in their Haitian hotel and whisked to the United States to face cocaine charges As the pair sit in a New York jail awaiting their fate in a case that has made global headlines a real narco telenovela drama is also causing controversy back home Four days before his wife s nephews were arrested President Nicolas Maduro s government banned U S based Latino network Telemundo s soap Queen of the South for glorifying the drug trade and harming family values But with Maduro s own family now dragged into a drug controversy critics are having a field day poking fun at what they deem the socialist government s hypocritical moralizing First Lady Cilia Flores has been dubbed the Queen of the South in a flood of internet memes that joke about the banned show morphing into a reality show featuring the Miraflores presidential palace In one the 62 year old lawyer s face has been superimposed on a promotional photo showing glamorous Mexican actress Kate del Castillo who plays the Queen of the South sitting in a short black dress with her legs crossed In another a video has been tinkered with to make it seem like Flores and Maduro are merrily dancing merengue to the lyrics of the soap s theme song which go Queen of the South A very famous trafficker Born out there in Sinaloa In the Spanish language drama a Mexican woman from the drug rife state of Sinaloa rises to become a top cartel boss in Spain The plot line is infused with passionate love stories bitter betrays and undercover agents If Cilia Flores nephews had watched the Queen of the South they would have learned about undercover agents but no the telecoms regulator didn t let them quipped Venezuelan political commentator Marysabel Cadenas on Twitter N TWTR To be sure there is no indication Flores herself is involved in trafficking The government has not commented on the arrests Venezuelan telecoms regulator Conatel did not answer calls seeking comment on its decision to ban the show which has been a hit in big TV markets like the United States Mexico and Spain Comcast Corp O CMCSA s NBCUniversal which owns Telemundo did not immediately respond to e mails seeking comment on the show s suspension GLAMORIZING GANGSTERS In an oil rich country with an alleged bustling drug trade and one of the world s highest murder rates most crime experts argue that profound policy change rather than censorship of entertainment is the top priority to turn the tide of violence Both Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez have taken aim at hugely popular telenovelas once a successful Venezuela export industry for romanticizing guns and gangsters But amid U S investigations into alleged drugs and money laundering crimes linked to Venezuelan officials the Socialist Party is sometimes finding itself alluded to on screen National Assembly boss Diosdado Cabello reported by U S media to be under investigation there for links to drug trafficking accused the The Lord of the Skies another Telemundo soap of modeling a narco boss after him You know what one of their corrupt drug trafficking generals is called the former soldier said in May during his weekly show Diosdado Carreno Arias Oh sweet Lord Cabello refutes allegations he is involved with drugs saying the Venezuelan opposition and U S government are spreading lies including via entertainment to subvert and discredit the ruling Socialists Do you think any similarity with this scandalous fabrication is pure coincidence he said
I don t think so |
CMCSA | U S arrests three men over hacking scheme targeting 60 million people | By Nate Raymond Reuters Three men were arrested on Monday for engaging in a wide ranging hacking and spamming scheme that targeted personal information of 60 million people including Comcast customers U S prosecutors announced Tuesday Timothy Livingston 30 Tomasz Chmielarz 32 and Devin McArthur 27 were named in an indictment filed in federal court in Newark New Jersey that charged them with conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity among other offenses Prosecutors said Livingston a Boca Raton Florida resident was the leader of a series of computer hacking and illegal spamming schemes that targeted multiple companies and generated illegal profits exceeding 2 million The three men were arrested at their respective residences on Tuesday morning a spokesman for U S Attorney Paul Fishman in New Jersey said Michael Koribanics Chmielarz s lawyer said his client would plead not guilty at a court hearing on Tuesday A lawyer for Livingston did not immediately respond to a request for comment and an attorney for McArthur could not be identified Prosecutors said Livingston who owned a spam company called A Whole Lot of Nothing LLC hired Chmielarz of Rutherford New Jersey to author hacking tools and other programs that facilitated the hacking and spamming schemes Among the companies they targeted was a Pennsylvania based telecommunications company that employed McArthur a resident of Ellicott City Maryland who installed hacking tools in company networks to gain access to records for 50 million people prosecutors said The company was not identified by name in court papers But McArthur s LinkedIn page says he worked at Comcast Corp O CMCSA during the period in question A Comcast spokeswoman had no immediate comment Livingston and Chmielarz also compromised tens of thousands of peoples email accounts including customers of a New York telecommunications company which they then used to send spam the indictment said Other companies targeted in the schemes included a New York based technology and consulting company whose website was compromised and a Texas based credit monitoring firm that was hacked the indictment said In the case of the unnamed credit monitoring firm the indictment said Livingston paid Chmielarz to write a program to steal a database containing 10 million records When law enforcement seized Livingston s computer in July they discovered a database with 7 million of that company s records the indictment said |
CMCSA | FCC wants details on AT T Comcast T Mobile data plans | By David Shepardson WASHINGTON Reuters The Federal Communications Commission said on Thursday it asked major Internet providers to answer questions on policies aimed at offering consumers free data by using preferred services and whether they violate the government s net neutrality rules The FCC unveiled rules earlier this year requiring broadband providers to treat all data equally rather than giving or selling access to a so called Web fast lane FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told reporters that commission staff sent letters on Wednesday to AT T Inc N T Comcast Corp O CMCSA and T Mobile Inc to come in and have a discussion with us about some of the innovative things that they are doing The letters which the FCC made public on Thursday seek meetings with relevant technical and business personnel by Jan 15 As you may be aware concerns have been expressed about these programs for example some have argued that sponsored data unfairly advantages incumbent content providers the letter to AT T said We want to ensure that we have all the facts to understand how these services relate to the commission s goal of maintaining a free and open Internet while incentivizing innovation and investment from all sources T Mobile has introduced a new Binge On policy that does not count some digital video services against data limits Comcast is rolling out its own live streaming TV service in six states called Stream TV that would not count usage against data caps if using Comcast services AT T has sponsored data plan programs that allow content providers to subsidize users wireless data Users can browse or stream some content from sponsors that does not count against data allowances AT T said the company is reviewing the letter and will respond as appropriate We remain committed to innovation without permission from regulators and hope the FCC is too A Comcast spokeswoman said the company looks forward to participating in the FCC s fact gathering process Our Stream TV service does not go over the public Internet It is a cable service that only works in the customer s home the company said T Mobile said its program does not violate open Internet rules This program provides both great customer choice and industry innovation that encourages competition and we believe it is absolutely in line with net neutrality rules the company said Wheeler said the commission wants to welcome innovation in its open Internet order He said the commission wants to keep aware of what is going on FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai told reporters the letters are likely to lead to an investigation The FCC should not haul in companies left and right to justify their business plans he said He called it a fishing expedition The FCC plans to invite others including other commercial interests and public interest groups to discuss the issue
On Dec 4 a U S appeals court heard arguments over the legality of the net neutrality rules in a case that may ultimately determine how consumers obtain access to content on the Internet |
CMCSA | Exclusive U S Justice Department probes data breach at Uber sources | By Joseph Menn and Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO Reuters The U S Department of Justice is pursuing a criminal investigation of a May 2014 data breach at ride service Uber including an examination of whether any employees at competitor Lyft were involved in the episode sources familiar with the situation said Earlier this year Uber revealed that as many as 50 000 of its drivers names and their license numbers had been improperly downloaded An investigation by Uber determined that an Internet address potentially associated with the breach can be traced to Lyft s technology chief Chris Lambert Reuters reported in October Department of Justice spokesman Abraham Simmons said on Wednesday he could not confirm or deny a criminal probe No one has been accused of any wrongdoing and it is unclear whether anyone will ultimately be charged in connection with the breach A recently hired attorney for Lambert former federal prosecutor Miles Ehrlich said Lambert had nothing to do with the breach Given that Uber apparently lost driver data a law enforcement investigation is to be expected Ehrlich said And the benefit is that the culprit here is going to be identified and that s going to remove Chris name from any conversation about Uber s data breach as it should In a statement on Friday Lyft said we have not been contacted by the DOJ U S Attorney s office or any other state or federal government agency regarding any investigation Uber declined to comment The people familiar with the matter could not be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly SEARCH FOR HACKER Lyft is much smaller than Uber which operates in more than 300 cities in 67 countries and has raised 7 4 billion from investors The companies based in San Francisco compete fiercely for drivers and customers Uber learned last year that someone downloaded its driver database which should have been accessible only with a digital security key A search for that key turned up a copy on the code development site GitHub where it had been left by mistake Uber then obtained information from GitHub about who had connected to that page before the breach and found only one Internet Protocol address that did not belong to an Uber user or have another plausible explanation according to court documents Uber filed a civil lawsuit in San Francisco federal court in February in an attempt to unmask the perpetrator The company s court papers claim that an unidentified person using a Comcast O CMCSA IP address had access to the security key On its own Uber investigated that address and determined that it had been assigned to Lambert Reuters reported in October A U S judge ruled that Uber could further probe the IP address saying it was reasonably likely that such an inquiry could help identify the hacker That ruling is on hold pending an appeal SWORN STATEMENT Attorneys for the unnamed Comcast subscriber have pointed out in court that the data breach was conducted from a different IP address than the Comcast address that accessed the security key Lyft said that Uber allowed the key for the database to be publicly accessible for months before and after the breach The IP address the hacker used is associated with Anonine a virtual private network service based in Sweden that is known for vigorously protecting the privacy of its users two people familiar with the situation told Reuters Ehrlich said Lambert offered to provide Uber with a sworn statement that he had nothing to do with the breach made under penalty of perjury Lambert signed the statement over the summer a separate source familiar with the situation said In it Lambert also said he was not aware of anyone who has copies of Uber s database and that he did not instruct anyone to access it the source said However Lyft and Ehrlich declined to confirm or deny that Lambert s Comcast address connected to the GitHub page containing the key They also declined to give details about Lyft s internal investigation of the matter Lyft reiterated on Friday that it investigated the matter long ago and concluded there is no evidence that any Lyft employee including Chris downloaded the Uber driver information or database or had anything to do with Uber s May 2014 data breach
Uber s lawsuit alleges the hacker violated civil provisions of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act as well as a similar California law It is unclear if the leaked driver information was ever used by the hacker or anyone else |
CMCSA | Miss Philippines crowned Miss Universe in first post Trump era pageant | By Joseph Ax and David Bailey Reuters A 26 year old actress and model from the Philippines was crowned Miss Universe on Sunday after host Steve Harvey mistakenly first announced that Miss Colombia had won the 64th edition of the pageant broadcast live on the Fox television network The pageant ended with a gaff after its first edition since the annual beauty show was thrust into controversy when then co owner and U S presidential candidate Donald Trump made disparaging remarks about immigrants Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach a Filipino German actress and model born in Stuttgart and raised in Cagayan de Oro was announced as runner up to Miss Colombia before Harvey announced to the audience that he had made a mistake Ariadna Gutierrez Ar valo 21 of Sincelejo Colombia had already been crowned by Miss Universe of 2014 Paulina Vega of Barranquilla Colombia who was forced to remove the crown and give it to Miss Philippines Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach Olivia Jordan 27 of Tulsa Oklahoma finished third I am so regretful Harvey said on Twitter N TWTR in an apology to the contestants from Colombia and the Philippines When asked why she wanted to be Miss Universe Wurtzbach replied that I will use my voice to influence the youth and I would raise awareness to certain causes like HIV awareness that is timely and relevant to my country I want to show the world the universe rather that I am confidently beautiful with a heart she said Among the more notable moments Flora Coquerel of France who was at the Paris stadium the night of the November attacks by militant Islamists reached the final five and Ariana Miyamoto of Japan whose father is African American reached the top 10 contestants Miyamoto s height of 1 73 m 5 7 ft and bronze skin are unusual in Japan and her selection to represent Japan in the Miss Universe pageant created an online firestorm in her native country For the first time viewers had a chance to vote on the winner rating contestants in the swimwear evening gown and interview competitions Until recently the pageant was co owned by Comcast O CMCSA Corp s NBCUniversal and Trump who is leading national polls in the 2016 Republican presidential nomination race Earlier Trump s remarks about Mexicans in announcing his presidential candidacy in June drew sharp criticism and the Spanish language network Univision pulled out of a deal to televise the pageant Trump who has sued Univision for 500 million bought out NBC s stake in the Miss Universe Organization which produces both Sunday s pageant and the Miss USA contest He sold the company in September
The panel of judges included former National Football League great Emmitt Smith celebrity blog mogul Perez Hilton and 2012 Miss Universe winner Olivia Culpo Hilton a Miss USA judge said the two most important things about the pageant were the vastly larger audience and that Trump was no longer owner |
WFC | Wells Fargo hires law firm to advise on executive pay WSJ | Reuters Wells Fargo Co s N WFC board hired law firm Shearman Sterling LLP to advise on executive compensation and potential clawbacks the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter Robert Mundheim a lawyer at the firm is advising the bank s board on whether it should claw back pay of Chief Executive John Stumpf Chief Operating Officer Timothy Sloan and former retail banking head Carrie Tolstedt according to the WSJ report Wells Fargo has come under fire for sales abuses at the bank where employees opened as many as 2 million accounts in customers names without their authorization The bank had said its board will assess whether to cancel or claw back any incentive compensation paid to Tolstedt a now retired executive at the center of the scandal
Wells Fargo and Mundheim declined to comment |
WFC | Former employees file class action against Wells Fargo | By David Bailey Reuters Two former Wells Fargo Co N WFC employees have filed a class action in California seeking 2 6 billion or more for workers who tried to meet aggressive sales quotas without engaging in fraud and were later demoted forced to resign or fired The lawsuit on behalf of people who worked for Wells Fargo in California over the past 10 years including current employees focuses on those who followed the rules and were penalized for not meeting sales quotas Wells Fargo fired or demoted employees who failed to meet unrealistic quotas while at the same time providing promotions to employees who met these quotas by opening fraudulent accounts the lawsuit filed on Thursday in California Superior Court in Los Angeles County said Wells Fargo has fired some 5 300 employees for opening as many as 2 million accounts in customers names without their authorization On Sept 8 a federal regulator and Los Angeles prosecutor announced a 190 million settlement with Wells The revelations are a severe hit to Wells Fargo s reputation During the financial crisis the bank trumpeted being a conservative bank in contrast with its rivals A Wells Fargo spokesman on Saturday declined to comment on the lawsuit The lawsuit accuses Wells Fargo of wrongful termination unlawful business practices and failure to pay wages overtime and penalties under California law Former employees Alexander Polonsky and Brian Zaghi allege Wells Fargo managers pressed workers to meet quotas of 10 accounts per day required progress reports several times daily and reprimanded workers who fell short Polonsky and Zaghi filed applications matching customer requests and were counseled demoted and later terminated the lawsuit said While executives at the top benefited from the activity the blame landed on thousands of 12 per hour employees who tried to meet the quotas and were often required to work off the clock to do so the lawsuit said Employees with a conscience who tried to meet quotas without engaging in fraud were the biggest victims losing wages benefits and suffering anxiety humiliation and embarrassment the lawsuit said Wells Fargo was aware many accounts were illegally opened unwanted carried a zero balance or were simply a result of unethical business practices the lawsuit said
Wells Fargo knew that their unreasonable quotas were driving these unethical behaviors that were used to fraudulently increase their stock price and benefit the CEO at the expense of the low level employees the lawsuit said |
WFC | Support for Wells Fargo CEO Stump now wavering CLSA | Reuters CLSA analyst Mike Mayo said his support for Wells Fargo Co N WFC Chief Executive John Stumpf was wavering following problematic sales tactics that has brought him under fire from U S lawmakers The bank has been facing heightened scrutiny following allegations that its employees had set up as many as 2 million accounts and credit cards in customers names that may have not been authorized Mayo said his support for Stumpf was contingent upon the CEO s ability to better explain the repercussions of the sales abuses Last week lawmakers on the U S Senate Banking Committee grilled Stumpf about the accounts with some calling on him to resign and forfeit his earnings and hold other senior executives accountable Shareholders have a right to know what will be done to the pay of top executives to the composition of the board and for impacted customers Mayo said in a note to clients We believe Wells Fargo is bigger than the CEO notwithstanding a good financial track record during his tenure and there should be no more excuses for the lack of answers to key questions Mayo said Mayo rates the stock outperform with a price target of 45 74 The median price target is 51
Shares of the San Francisco California based lender have fallen by about 10 percent since Sept 7 the day before the bank reached a 185 million settlement over fraud case |
WFC | U S Labor Department launches review of all Wells Fargo complaints | By Sarah N Lynch WASHINGTON Reuters U S Labor Department Secretary Thomas Perez on Monday pledged to conduct a top to bottom review of all cases complaints and other alleged violations that the department has received concerning Wells Fargo N WFC in recent years Perez s announcement outlined in a Sept 26 letter to Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts comes after Warren and other Democrats asked the Labor Department last week to launch a probe into possible wage and working hour law violations involving Wells Fargo tellers and sales representatives who may have stayed late to meet sales quotas Given the serious nature of the allegations the recent actions of our federal partners and recent media reports I have directed enforcement agencies within the Department to conduct a top to bottom review he wrote He also said the department has created a web page at to help ensure current and former Wells Fargo employees are aware of worker protection laws Wells Fargo was ordered to pay 190 million earlier this month to settle civil charges alleging its employees had set up about 2 million accounts and credit cards in customers names that may not have been authorized A Wells Fargo spokeswoman could not be immediately reached for comment after the close of business Monday but the company previously apologized to affected customers and said it fired 5 300 employees over inappropriate sales conduct The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleged that the opening of these accounts was driven by a system that financially rewarded employees Federal prosecutors have since launched a criminal probe into the issue a source previously told Reuters The Labor Department polices a variety of things including wage and hour rules workplace safety whistleblower protection laws and employee benefit plans Perez said that the department s Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA has received a number of whistleblower complaints from Wells Fargo employees over the past five years Most of those complaints are concluded with some settling and others found to have no merit he said Others are still currently under investigation he added I have asked OSHA to review the entire docket of both closed and open Wells Fargo cases since 2010 he said Senator Warren in a statement to Reuters welcomed the department s review
Every other federal agency with jurisdiction in this matter should follow DOL s lead and promptly determine whether Wells Fargo and its senior executives should be prosecuted or otherwise sanctioned she said |
WFC | Wells Fargo hit with class action lawsuit over sales practices | Reuters A shareholder class action lawsuit was filed against Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co on Monday that alleged the firm misled investors about its financial performance and the success of its sales practices Wells Fargo the United States third largest bank by assets agreed to pay 190 million earlier this month to settle regulatory charges that some of its employees opened as many as 2 million accounts without customers knowledge in order to meet sales targets Robbins Geller Rudman Dowd LLP announced the lawsuit and is seeking class action status on behalf of buyers of the company s shares between Feb 26 2014 and Sept 15 2016 The lawsuit which was filed in the U S District Court of Northern California comes nearly a week after Wells Fargo chief executive John Stumpf faced U S Senate lawmakers about his oversight at the bank It also singled out Stumpf and Carrie Tolstedt the now retired executive at the center of the scandal for selling more than 31 million of their stock in Wells Fargo at artificially inflated prices Wells Fargo has said its board will assess whether to cancel or claw back any incentive compensation paid to Tolstedt The complaint also criticizes the firm s cross selling strategy saying it failed to disclose material facts about its practices that were aimed at fulfilling sales quotas Wells Fargo has long been the envy of the banking industry for its ability to sell multiple products to the same customer The San Francisco based bank has said it has fired 5 300 people over the matter and would eliminate sales goals in its retail banking on Jan 1 2017 Wells Fargo declined to comment on the matter
Up to Monday s close shares of the company have fallen more than 10 percent since Sept 8 when it reached a settlement with regulators wiping off more than 25 billion of market capitalization |
WFC | Wells Fargo likely to decide on clawback before Thursday WSJ | Reuters Wells Fargo Co s N WFC board is likely to decide on whether to claw back pay from former retail banking head Carrie Tolstedt and Chief Executive John Stumpf ahead of a congressional hearing on Thursday the Wall Street Journal reported The bank could make the decision as soon as Tuesday the Journal reported citing a person familiar with the matter Stumpf has come under fire following allegations that the bank s employees had set up as many as 2 million accounts and credit cards in customers names without their consent Lawmakers on the U S Senate Banking Committee grilled Stumpf about the accounts last week with some calling on him to resign and forfeit his earnings and hold other senior executives accountable
Wells Fargo could not be immediately available for comment |
WFC | Financial Stocks Don t Believe Bernanke | The big banks love Ben Bernanke for the free money they ve been given over the last few years They have been direct recipients of his QE policy and the companies that have benefited the most Yet Bernanke s dovish print more money statements on Wednesday has not seen large financial stocks like JPMorgan Chase Co JPM and Wells Fargo Co WFC rally While the whole market was sharply up Thursday JPM and WFC were flat to lower Does that mean the smart money is questioning what Ben Bernanke said Smarter Than The Average InvestorPerhaps the smart money is smarter than the stock market as a whole realizing that the Federal Reserve will be withdrawing at least some of its QE before the year s out As an investor or trader one must pay close attention to this divergence between the stock market in general and the financial stocks in particular Indeed something is wrong when the market rallies because Ben Bernanke says he s going to print money forever and the financial stocks can t catch a bid Gareth SolowayChief Market Strategistwww InTheMoneyStocks com |
CMCSA | Presidential debate trumps World Series on Twitter | By Jessica Toonkel and Lisa Richwine Reuters The Republican presidential debate took over Twitter N TWTR on Wednesday night with GOPdebate trending far more than WorldSeries according to data by social media analytics provider Hashtags org The trend may indicate the debate among GOP hopefuls trumped the baseball World Series broadcast in TV viewership Throughout the debate which began around 8 20 p m EDT on CNBC O CMCSA and lasted two hours GOPdebate trended much higher than WorldSeries according to the data Game 2 of the World Series between the New York Mets and Kansas City Royals which aired on Fox finished about 40 minutes after the debate Industry observers expect the debates to be the highest rated program in CNBC s 26 year history TV ratings will be released later Thursday CNBC s average daily audience has totaled 153 000 over the past 12 months according to Nielsen data provided by Horizon Media down from 254 000 during the 2007 2008 financial crisis The network s prime time viewership has been growing averaging 333 000 in the past year CNBC which sold all of its ad slots during the debate charged advertisers 250 000 or more for a 30 second ad during the prime time debate according to a person familiar with the situation That compares to 200 000 that CNN charged for the last Republican debate and 100 000 that CNN charged for the Democratic debate sources have told Reuters
The Kansas City Royals beat the New York Mets in Game 2 7 1 |
CMCSA | CNBC says 14 million watched its Republican presidential debate | LOS ANGELES Reuters CNBC attracted an average of 14 million viewers to its Republican presidential debate on Wednesday the Comcast owned O CMCSA business news network said in a statement on Thursday |
CMCSA | Trump pokes fun at his presidential style as Saturday Night Live host | By Erin McPike and Alice Popovici
NEW YORK Reuters Candidate Donald Trump on Saturday satirized his imaginary presidency with a Washington Monument covered in gold mirrors and policy agenda made of magic in his turn as host of comedy show Saturday Night Live
The Republican front runner steered clear of making fun of an immigration plan that has angered Latinos but the show s writers did make sure he was called a racist during his opening monologue
Actor Larry David stood to the side of the stage and yelled racist as Trump spoke saying he heard he would make 5 000 for doing so a reference to one group s offer to anyone who yelled that at Trump during the live NBC show
During a sketch depicting Trump s cabinet two years into his term Trump told his team I don t have to get specific about policy
With me it s just magic he said a reference to his campaign trail promises that a Trump led United States would be so great Americans would get tired of winning
Trump s appearance made light of his campaign s tendency to exaggerate and promise to improve the U S economy without offering details as well as his history of denigrating perceived weaknesses
His daughter Ivanka Trump appeared as his interior secretary saying the Washington Monument was now covered in gold mirrored glass a mocking reference to Trump s preference for opulence and suggesting that Washington D C is not flashy enough for his taste
Trump joked he was too tired to rehearse for one skit and would instead live tweet Graphics of Trump s comments then appeared on screen as he took aim at cast members for being low class or losers referencing the manner in which he has slammed rivals on the campaign trail
Trump s hosting gig his second with the show has been controversial since NBC announced it last month for giving the candidate the enviable exposure of one TV s most popular and long running shows
The harshest criticism has come from Latino activists who protested outside NBC s O CMCSA Manhattan studios on Saturday saying the network was legitimizing the Republican presidential hopeful s racist views on immigration
The former star of NBC reality show The Apprentice outraged many in June when he described Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug smugglers in announcing his candidacy While making illegal immigration a main campaign theme Trump has also said many of his employees are Hispanics and that they love him
Immigrants are not the enemy Karina Garcia a volunteer with activist group The Answer Coalition who was draped with the Mexican flag told chanting protesters
The show made a passing reference to the protest during its weekly Weekend Update segment
Hispanic American groups and others say SNL s producers gave Trump a platform to try to take the sting out of what they say are his hateful views
An NBC representative has said SNL would not comment on the Trump controversy A spokeswoman for the Republican candidate said the campaign was not commenting either
An estimated 53 million Hispanics make up about 17 percent of the U S population and accounted for about 10 percent of the presidential vote in 2012
The bloc has favored Democratic candidates in greater numbers in each election since 2004 and Republican officials have been trying to appeal to Latino voters Party officials have told Trump his rhetoric is compromising their efforts |
CMCSA | Saturday Night Live with Trump earns best ratings in years | By Barbara Goldberg NEW YORK Reuters Donald Trump s appearance as guest host of Saturday Night Live helped the TV comedy sketch show earn its highest viewership ratings since 2012 the NBC television network said on Sunday The show which came under fire from Latino groups for inviting the blunt spoken Republican presidential frontrunner to host garnered a 6 6 rating in the 56 U S markets measured by Nielsen Media Research NBC said in a statement The Trump show was the highest rating for SNL since Jan 7 2012 when an episode hosted by retired basketball star Charles Barkley pulled in a 7 0 rating said the Comcast Corp O CMCSA owned network Saturday s rating was about 50 percent higher than the season premiere on Oct 3 when Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton made a cameo appearance according to CNNMoney com Ratings are a measure of the audience as a percentage of all television households whether their sets were turned on or not during the show s time slot Trump s appearance received an avalanche of advance publicity when Hispanic groups objected to NBC s decision to invite the billionaire developer saying it was legitimizing his racist views on immigration Even so many critics say the SNL skits featuring Trump didn t quite live up to all the hype Viewers tuned in to see a joyless nearly unfunny show which ended in a curtain call with Mr Trump and the cast that played like a hostage video wrote New York Times television critic James Poniewozik Before the show Latino activists demonstrated outside NBC s New York studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza The former star of reality TV show The Apprentice outraged many Americans in June when he described Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug smugglers While he made a crackdown on illegal immigration a main campaign theme Trump has also said many of his employees are Hispanics and that they love him The show made reference to that controversy when comedian Larry David in an obvious send up called out Donald Trump is a racist to an apparently unfazed Trump David then told the host that he was seeking a 5 000 bounty that a website called DeportRacism com promised to pay for on air heckling Trump told CNN on Sunday that he vetoed some of the more risque skits and earlier in the week he told Fox News it was because he didn t want to alienate voters in Iowa home of the first event in the 2016 presidential nominating contest |
CMCSA | Yahoo Hulu Team Up To Launch TV Watching Site Yahoo View | Yahoo Inc NASDAQ YHOO has announced the launch of Yahoo View a new TV watching website that will feature free content from Hulu The site will enable users to watch episodes of their favorite TV shows Additionally it will also enable them to view clips recaps and Tumbler content In fact Yahoo View is right now one of the only platforms to offer free access to Hulu s TV shows and movies The Partnership in DetailsYahoo has been a distribution partner for Hulu s content for years Both the companies were in talks about this particular deal for the last six months We note that Yahoo now enjoys the status of a preferred partner and not an exclusive distribution partner which means that one can have access to Hulu s content on other platforms as well such as Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA and on websites that contain the Hulu player namely New York Magazine EW People com and others Yahoo View AttractionsLatest Five Episodes Users will be able to view the last five episodes of their favorite programs after a period of eight days from the original broadcast date Variety Yahoo View will offer a variety of programs such as TV shows movies anime Korean drama Latino and British content clips and interviews of celebrities Tumbler Integration Yahoo View has been integrated with Tumblr Yahoo s own blogging platform through which TV fans will be able to blog and reblog their favorite clips GIFs or photos Additionally users will be able to switch to Tumblr in the middle of watching their favorite shows Picture in Picture This feature enables users to simultaneously surf Tumblr while watching their favorite programs on Yahoo View Our TakeYahoo View is in line with CEO Marissa Mayer s MAVENS strategy which focuses on building Yahoo s capabilities in mobile video native and social experiences to drive traffic and thereby revenues Advertisements displayed on the network will bring in revenues either through the Hulu player or on the Yahoo View website which will be shared as per standard revenue sharing arrangements in the industry Yahoo will roll in the free offer after a few weeks so as to monetize its strong base of nearly 12 million paid subscribers Currently Yahoo View is only available for the desktop The company intends to make the services available for Android and iOS platforms in the near future YAHOO INC Price Zacks RankAt present Yahoo has a Zacks Rank 3 Hold Some better ranked stocks in the broader technology space are Facebook Inc NASDAQ FB and Web com Group Inc NASDAQ WEB both sporting a Zacks Rank 1 Strong Buy and Blucora Inc NASDAQ BCOR carrying a Zacks Rank 2 Buy Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research Today you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days |
WFC | Fed again poised to cut longer run interest rate forecast | By Ann Saphir and Jonathan Spicer SAN FRANCISCO NEW YORK Reuters U S Federal Reserve policymakers are set this week to again cut their forecasts for how high interest rates will need to go in an economy where output productivity and inflation are growing at a slower pace than in past decades It would be the fourth time in 15 months that the U S central bank has been forced to admit its estimate of this so called neutral rate was too optimistic raising questions about the health of the economy in the coming years The Fed however still insists low interest rates and its large balance sheet of bonds are sufficient to continue bolstering economic growth Conversations with Fed officials suggest some will cut their predictions for the longer run rate at this week s monetary policy meeting with the median forecast possibly falling to 2 75 percent It was 3 75 percent in June 2015 and 4 25 percent four years ago The Fed is expected to leave its benchmark overnight interest rate unchanged following its two day meeting on Wednesday according to a Reuters poll of economists The Fed s policy rate has been about 0 38 percent since it was raised in December the first increase in nearly a decade The expected reduction in the longer run neutral rate forecast amounts to a lower speed limit on future rate hikes and points to fewer increases with longer gaps between them than U S central bankers and investors had expected The lower the neutral rate forecast the less anxious the Fed needs to be about tightening policy which would justify its repeated decisions to defer rate increases The result says San Francisco Fed President John Williams will be the shallowest set of rate hikes ever much flatter according to Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan in a separate conversation than anything in the past The Fed has not raised rates this year despite signaling in December that four rate hikes were coming in 2016 That number has since been scaled back to two hikes this year with another three hikes in 2017 due to a global growth slowdown financial market volatility and tepid U S inflation But given the new thinking on the neutral rate that seems overly optimistic Fed policymakers say an aging U S population and decline in productivity growth is sapping economic potential making them wary about raising rates too fast They are not very far from being in a tightening mode said Shehriyar Antia founder of Macro Insight Group and a former senior analyst at the New York Fed That augers for more patience since the risk of you falling behind with inflation is less because it ain t going to take that much for rates to lean on inflation FED TOOLBOX Regardless of any reduction in the neutral rate estimate this week Fed Chair Janet Yellen is likely to stick with her view that the central bank s so called toolbox its more than 4 trillion in Treasuries and mortgage backed securities low interest rates and planned gradual removal of stimulus is appropriate for an economy that has consistently fallen short of growth forecasts During the global central banking conference last month in Jackson Hole Wyoming Yellen said that policy mix had served the Fed well and would likely be useful in the face of a future economic downturn But the Fed s constant walk backs have served to undercut some of the market s faith in the central bank Traders of short term rate futures for instance are now betting the Fed will not hike rates until early next year Still any cut to the Fed s neutral rate forecast does not mean it will never raise rates They want to maintain market expectations for a rate hike in case they want to raise rates in December if conditions warrant one said Sam Bullard a senior economist at Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Securities in Charlotte North Carolina
The Fed is due to release its policy statement at 2 p m EDT 1800 GMT on Wednesday and Yellen will hold a press conference shortly after The Fed s rate setting committee will meet again in early November and mid December |
WFC | Bank regulator OCC says eyes action against Wells Fargo executives | WASHINGTON Reuters Thomas Curry the Comptroller of the Currency said on Tuesday that his agency is considering action against individual Wells Fargo NYSE WFC executives after a customer fraud was detected at the bank
The OCC may take formal enforcement actions against institution affiliated parties including directors officers and employees who violate any law or regulation engage in unsafe or unsound practices or breach fiduciary duty Curry told a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee |
WFC | U S consumer protection agency fields nearly one million complaints | WASHINGTON Reuters A leading consumer protection agency has fielded nearly 1 million complaints in a database that helped investigate client abuse at Wells Fargo NYSE WFC the head of the agency told lawmakers on Tuesday Richard Cordray director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said the agency expects to reach 1 million complaints by the end of the week
I think it will be Thursday Cordray told the Senate Banking Committee of complaints to the public database that was a tool for investigating customer abuse at Wells Fargo |
WFC | Senators push Wells Fargo CEO on pay clawbacks after bogus accounts | By Patrick Rucker and Dan Freed Reuters U S Senate lawmakers excoriated Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co s chief on Tuesday for his oversight of the bank as it opened 2 million bogus customer accounts potentially laying the groundwork for new rules and reviving questions of whether banks are too big to fail Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf told the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday that customers who had bogus accounts opened in their name will be made whole and compensated for any damage to their credit rating but some Democratic senators called for his resignation Under fire Stumpf said he has told his managers to do whatever it takes to make customers whole refunding fees or compensating them for damage to their credit ratings But he stood behind the former executive who ran the unit that oversaw many of the practices and at times downplayed the scope of the affair In answer to a question he declined to commit to setting aside mandatory arbitration agreements that prohibit clients from suing Wells Fargo The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau has proposed a ban on such clauses that prohibit class action lawsuits Earlier this month the lender agreed to pay 190 million in penalties and customer payouts to settle the case involving the creation of credit savings and other accounts without customers knowledge About 5 million will directly go to customers many of whom might have paid a small fee on the unwanted accounts The revelations are a severe hit to Wells Fargo s reputation During the financial crisis the bank trumpeted itself as conservative in contrast to its rivals Besides potential criminal charges against the company and its executives Wells Fargo may face pressure from shareholders to change its practices on executive pay and governance The scandal also renewed debate over whether U S banks are too big to fail and need closer government oversight to prevent a massive collapse Lawmakers could use the fraud settlement as a springboard for new rules on executive pay including clawbacks of compensation and limits on forced arbitration Wells Fargo has said its board will assess whether to cancel or claw back any incentive compensation paid to a now retired executive at the center of the scandal Carrie Tolstedt Democratic Senators Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts called for Stumpf to resign with Warren saying Stumpf should give back his salary and be criminally investigated You should resign You should give back the money you took while this scam was going on and you should be criminally investigated Warren said The bank s board of directors is examining what action it should take against company executives Stumpf told the committee I accept full responsibility for all unethical sales practices Stumpf said adding later I apologize to all of the American people and our customers and I will make it right Lawmakers said the phony bank accounts might have hurt customer credit ratings increased the cost of a mortgage or car loan New credit card applications and consumer borrowing trends can weight on an individual s credit WHERE WAS MANAGEMENT Wells Fargo has acknowledged bank employees inappropriately opened the customer accounts and that about 5 300 employees were fired over five years Former bank employees say they were under intense pressure to add accounts for each customer Abuses were found as early as 2011 Stumpf said but bank executives only realized the scale of the problem early last year At that time Stumpf said managers came to recognize how a pattern of creating phony accounts could be used to boost unwarranted fees It never dawned on us that there could be a cycle the CEO said It just sort of begs the issue of where was management said Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio the senior Democrat on the panel Brown said employees were caught forging signatures and stealing identities Social Security numbers and customers hard earned cash so as to hang on to their low paying jobs and make money for the high paying executives at Wells Fargo Thomas Curry the Comptroller of the Currency said the agency is considering action against individual Wells Fargo executives who may have violated laws or regulations The U S Attorney s Offices in Manhattan and in San Francisco are investigating Wells Fargo a person familiar with the matter said last week While Democratic lawmakers were the most outspoken in their attacks Republicans also grilled Stumpf Louisiana Senator David Vitter pressed the CEO on how customer fraud could persist for years and thousands of employees could be fired before the head of the bank got involved Why isn t this crystal clear proof that an entity as big as Wells is not only too big to fail but it s too big to manage and too big to regulate Vitter asked Stumpf said the widespread abuse was a problem of focus and not of size Stumpf appeared before the congressional panel with a bandaged right hand He suffered an injury playing with his grandchildren according to the bank
Wells Fargo shares rose 2 percent to 46 94 |
WFC | U S home refinancing activity falls to lowest since June | NEW YORK Reuters Weekly U S mortgage refinancing activity fell last week to its lowest since June as home borrowing costs rose to their most expensive level in about three months the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday The trade group s seasonally adjusted index on refinancing activity fell 8 percent in the week ended Sept 16 to its lowest level since the week of June 24 The average contract interest rate on 30 year fixed rate mortgages with conforming loan balances of 417 000 or less climbed to 3 70 percent which was its highest since 3 75 percent in the week ended June 24 the Washington based group said Meanwhile MBA s seasonal adjusted index on applications for loans to buy a home which is seen as a gauge on future housing activity fell 7 percent from a week earlier This week s domestic housing data were mixed The government said on Tuesday housing starts fell more than expected by 5 8 percent to an annualized 1 14 million units in August Analysts blamed the drop on the flooding in Texas and Louisiana which cut into construction in the South On the other hand the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo NYSE WFC said on Monday their index on their members confidence increased to 65 points in September matching its strongest level since October 2015 This compared with a downwardly revised 59 in August The MBA s index on overall mortgage activity fell 7 3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from a week earlier
The refinance share of mortgage activity edged up to 63 1 percent last week compared with 62 9 percent the previous week |
WFC | U S House panel to hold hearing on Wells Fargo accounts scandal | This September 21 story has been refiled to correct first paragraph to say as many as 2 million not 2 million WASHINGTON Reuters The House of Representatives Financial Services committee plans to hold a hearing into Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co next week after a scandal at the bank involving as many as 2 million fake accounts that thousands of employees set up in customers names The hearing which a committee spokeswoman said would be held on Sept 29 follows one by the Senate banking panel on Tuesday at which Chief Executive John Stumpf was criticized for his failure to properly answer questions about the matter Earlier this month the lender agreed to pay 190 million in penalties and customer payouts to settle the case involving the creation of credit savings and other accounts without customers knowledge About 5 million will directly go to customers many of whom might have paid a small fee on the unwanted accounts The Department of Justice and FBI also have launched probes into the bank s actions following its settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Los Angeles city attorney |
WFC | Senators seek Labor Department probe of Wells Fargo | By Sarah N Lynch WASHINGTON Reuters Eight U S Democratic senators asked the Labor Department on Thursday to launch a probe into whether Wells Fargo N WFC may have violated wage and working hour laws by failing to pay overtime to tellers and sales representatives who stayed late to meet sales quotas The request comes after Wells Fargo earlier this month was ordered to pay 190 million to settle civil charges alleging its employees had set up about 2 million accounts and credit cards in customers names that may have not been authorized The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleged in its complaint that Wells Fargo had a system in place which financially rewarded employees for each new account opened A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo said the bank strived to make all employees feel valued rewarded and recognized in an environment that includes market competitive compensation career development opportunities a broad array of benefits and a strong offering of work life programs A spokesman for the Labor Department said the department cannot discuss details of law enforcement decision making but that it takes the concerns raised in the letter very seriously The bank is facing mounting scrutiny over the issue Federal prosecutors have also launched a criminal investigation into the matter a source previously told Reuters Earlier this week lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee grilled Wells Fargo Chief Executive John Stumpf about the accounts with some calling on him to resign and forfeit his earnings and hold other senior executives accountable In the letter to the Labor Department the lawmakers expressed concerns about how the high pressure sales culture at the bank could also give rise to violations of federal labor laws In the wake of the CFPB s announcement dozens of former and current Wells Fargo employees have come forward to describe the lengths they went to in order to meet the bank s aggressive sales quotas they wrote For years Wells Fargo employees have described a management culture characterized by mental abuse being forced to work overtime for what felt like after school detention during the week and on weekends and being severely chastised and embarrassed in front of 60 plus managers
The letter was signed by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren Senate Banking Ranking Minority Member Sherrod Brown Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono |
WFC | California ballot has record number of local revenue measures | By Robin Respaut SAN FRANCISCO Reuters A record number of local tax and bond measures will fill the California ballot this November including over 32 billion of proposed funding for education infrastructure and homeless services Some 650 local measures will go before voters including 427 revenue measures That is considerably more than the number proposed during any of the last five gubernatorial or presidential elections according to data compiled by the local government finance consulting firm CaliforniaCityFinance com Previously the most measure packed election was in November 2014 with 268 local revenue measures California is one of 24 states that allow initiative rights to its citizens Voter approved measures are used to raise revenues for specific construction projects change tax policy or create new laws In the Golden State and nationwide a boom in bond proposals follows years of federal cutbacks to state and local programs continued low interest rates and years of unmet infrastructure needs The largest monetary requests by local municipalities in California include 3 5 billion for the Bay Area Rapid Transit BART 1 2 billion for Los Angeles homeless housing and services and 950 million for affordable housing in Santa Clara County There are 184 local measures to fund public school and community college projects totaling more than 25 billion Michael Coleman head of CaliforniaCityFinance com said the surge in education bond measures coincides with statewide Proposition 51 which authorizes 9 billion in general obligation bonds for public school facilities Proposition 55 aims to increase education funding by extending upper income tax rates There s a lot of folks that think this is the time to go for a new school bond said Coleman They see it as a synchronous message and time to get in line for matching funds The Nov 8 election is a focus for statewide propositions as well There are 17 in total regarding issues ranging from marijuana legalization to the public cost of prescription drugs tobacco taxes and the death penalty The surge of ballot measures comes during an election year in which the presidential race is sure to draw large crowds to voting booths There is also the lingering effect of low voter turnout during the November 2014 election that reduced the signature threshold for a proposition to qualify Across the country 74 citizen initiated measures fill state ballots more than double the number certified in 2014 according to Natalie Cohen senior analyst at Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Securities Growing populist sentiment and frustration with traditional government contributed to the groundswell Cohen wrote in a recent report about upcoming ballot measures In California some local measures are reactive to state propositions For example Proposition 64 aims to legalize recreational cannabis and 37 local measures would create marijuana taxes for local cities and counties Thirteen countywide measures would fund transportation improvements That s coming from an acknowledged pent up demand for badly needed infrastructure repairs Coleman said Eighty eight measures would increase or extend local sale taxes Another 39 support parcel taxes for road improvements fire and emergency services hospitals and police Parcel taxes are flat taxes on properties that originated after Proposition 13 severely limited property taxes in 1978 Three Bay Area measures would tax sugary beverages |
CMCSA | Comcast reaches 33 million settlement with California over privacy violations | Reuters Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA has reached a 33 million settlement with California over allegations that the cable company posted personal details of customers online state Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a statement on Thursday As part of the agreement with the California Department of Justice and the California Public Utilities Commission Comcast must pay 25 million in penalties and investigative costs to the to the two departments the statement said Comcast will also pay about 8 million in additional restitution to customers whose numbers were improperly disclosed This settlement provides meaningful relief to victims and brings greater transparency to Comcast s privacy practices Harris said The departments alleged that Comcast had posted names phone numbers and addresses of tens of thousands of customers who had paid for unlisted voice over internet protocol VOIP phone service Comcast will refund all fees paid for unlisted service to about 75 000 customers whose information was disclosed over a two year period The company will also pay each of these customers an additional 100 the statement said As part of the judgment filed in the Alameda Superior Court Comcast has agreed to a permanent injunction that requires it strengthen restrictions placed on its vendors use of personal information about customers the statement said The settlement also provides for further monetary relief to individuals who have identified personal safety concerns related to the disclosure of their personal information |
CMCSA | U S probing reports CIA chief s personal email hacked CNN | WASHINGTON Reuters The FBI and the Secret Service are investigating reports that CIA Director John Brennan s personal email had been hacked although no classified information had been accessed CNN said The New York Post reported on Monday that a high school student claimed to have hacked into Brennan s private AOL account and the Comcast O CMCSA account of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson The hacker told the Post Brennan s private account contained sensitive files including his 47 page application for top secret security clearance The CIA does not believe any classified information was compromised according to CNN The teenager said he accessed Johnson s account and also listened to his voicemails the newspaper reported We are aware of the media report however as a matter of policy we do not comment on the secretary s personal security a DHS spokesman said According to the Post the hacker described himself as an American high school student who is not Muslim and was motivated by opposition to U S foreign policy and support for Palestine
Reuters could not immediately verify the reports |
CMCSA | 3 Top Rated Legg Mason Mutual Funds To Buy Now | Founded in 1899 Legg Mason is one of the world s largest asset managers with assets under management of nearly 670 billion Legg Mason and its affiliates currently manage 99 mutual funds across a wide range of categories including both equity and fixed income funds It uses a multi affiliate business model that allows each affiliate to operate with a high degree of autonomy utilizing its unique approach and processes This Baltimore based company serves both individual and institutional investors with around 3 000 employees placed at 31 offices throughout the globe Below we share with you three top rated Legg Mason mutual funds Each has earned a Strong Buy and is expected to outperform its peers in the future Investors can their Zacks Rank and past performance ClearBridge Appreciation C generally invests in equity related securities of domestic firms Though SAPCX invests in securities of companies irrespective of their market capitalization it allocates most of its assets in large and mid cap companies SAPCX may also invest not more than one fifth of its assets in securities of companies located in the foreign lands ClearBridge Appreciation C has a three year annualized return of 8 6 As of June 2016 SAPCX held 80 issues with 3 71 of its assets invested in Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA Class A Western Asset Core Bond C seeks to provide maximum total return WABCX invests the majority of its assets in fixed income securities including debt securities The fund invests in securities irrespective of their maturity periods However WABCX is expected to maintain a dollar weighted average effective duration within 20 of the domestic bond market Western Asset Core Bond C has a three year annualized return of 4 1 S Kenneth Leech is one of the fund managers of WABCX since 2013 ClearBridge Dividend Strategy A invests a large portion of its assets in a notable portion of its assets in securities of companies that are expected to pay dividend SOPAX may invest a maximum of half of its assets in equity securities of foreign issuers either directly or through depositary receipts The fund seeks capital growth over the long term through dividend income appreciation ClearBridge Dividend Strategy A has a three year annualized return of 8 6 As of June 2016 SOPAX held 64 issues with 3 43 of its assets invested in Berkshire Hathaway NYSE BRKa Inc B To view the Zacks Rank and past performance of all Legg Mason mutual funds investors can About Zacks Mutual Fund RankBy applying the Zacks Rank to mutual funds investors can find funds that not only outpaced the market in the past but are also expected to outperform going forward Pick the with the Zacks Rank |
WFC | Column Eight years on from Lehman finance remains a tax on us all | By James Saft Reuters Eight years to the day after the fall of Lehman Brothers and one thing has not changed finance remains a private tax levied on the rest of us Two stories from this week s news illustrate this well First almost 90 percent of U S actively managed stock mutual funds failed to beat the market over the past year a study from S P Global showed This from an asset management sector whose global profit margins were 37 percent in 2015 according to consultants BCG about double that of the widely reviled pharmacy industry Second Wells Fargo NYSE WFC is now under federal and multiple local investigations for a mis selling scandal under which more than two million bank and credit card accounts were opened without customer consent Both stories in distinct but telling ways show how finance has grown and grown but without ever becoming more efficient only more lucrative for practitioners all the while distorting how capital is allocated and retarding economic growth Wells Fargo is not the Wall St debacle we ve come to expect with traders gambling with shareholders depositors and taxpayers money but a garden variety fraud under which frontline low level employees all bad apples acting independently the bank maintains created accounts customers had not asked for Though Wells Fargo fired 5 300 for the scheme not only has no high ranking executive been drummed out but Carrie Tolstedt the leader of the unit in question will be allowed to retire and take with her 124 6 million of accrued stock and options We do not know how many employees were let go for underperformance after failing to cross sell enough to clients Wells Fargo looks likely to be a story of bad incentives and bad actions to meet them but is also just one more instance of the way in which industry insiders work to part clients and shareholders from their money without providing fair value As for the active fund management industry it is not even as if this is the first year in which a huge majority of funds fail to beat the market after fees Over 10 years 88 percent of U S equity funds have lagged the market as have 96 percent of long term U S Treasury funds and 97 percent of high yield funds Quite simply profitable as it may be the active fund management industry is not fulfilling its mandate Its sole virtue may be that it is shrinking as savers increasingly allocate to low cost alternatives which track benchmarks TOO BIG AND TOO EXPENSIVE Look at the high level data and it is easy to see why my assertion that the industry is too big and too self serving is fair The unit cost of a dollar of financial intermediation has remained about two cents for 130 years according to data from Thomas Philippon Professor of Finance at New York University If you can find another industry which has had no meaningful gains in efficiency over more than a century drop me a line Despite being manifestly uncompetitive finance has grown and grown with its share of GDP now about 75 percent larger than it was in 1980 Much of that growth is down to growth in asset management fees and lending to consumers according to a 2013 study by Robin Greenwood and David Scharfstein in the Journal of Economic Perspectives And while it is undoubtedly true that a working financial sector is crucial to the health and growth of an economy economists increasingly argue that we now have a sector which impairs growth Stephen Cecchetti and Enisse Kharroubi of the Bank of International Settlements argue that periods of rapid growth in finance bring with them slowing growth in productivity in other areas of the economy In other words above a certain level finance acts as a levy rather than a spur The mechanism for how this works is not too hard to guess at Talent flows to where it is best rewarded and when bright young people see the kind of risk and reward tradeoff Tolstedt s 124 6 million represents they come flocking spending their careers working on cross selling plans of dubious benefit rather than something more what is the word more productive Or look at active asset management and consider the theory of Paul Woolley of the London School of Economics of how active benchmarking leads inevitably to bubbles and bad allocation of capital as managers pile on to whatever goes up in price and shun that which falls in order to protect their own hides Eight years on from Lehman s implosion and the global recession which came along with it one thing is clear much remains to be done
The writer is a Reuters columnist The opinions expressed are his own |
WFC | In afterglow of Wells case U S consumer agency faces fight for its life | By Lisa Lambert WASHINGTON Reuters The U S watchdog for consumer finance scored a major victory last week when it was part of the government group that forced Wells Fargo Co N WFC into a 190 million settlement of fraud charges but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau still faces an ugly fight to justify its own existence The agency which has taken on businesses ranging from small car dealers and major financial institutions is at the center of a philosophical debate about the value and limits of regulation Both presidential candidates have offered opinions on the five year old agency and Republicans and Democrats have worked to rally public opinion against and for the agency which was created in the 2010 Dodd Frank Wall Street reform law in response to the widespread deception and abuse of borrowers that helped lead to the financial crisis The CFPB could lose its first battle as early as Friday the earliest that a U S District Court could rule on whether the CFPB s single director structure is unconstitutional The lawsuit brought by mortgage servicer PHH Corporation over a fine for allegedly taking kickbacks for referring customers to an insurance company is the most serious legal test the agency has faced PHH contends that the CFPB s structure is unconstitutional because the agency s director is not directly answerable to the president or to Congress Should PHH prevail the CFPB would likely appeal But any ruling against the agency would give its critics primarily regulated industries and Republicans on Capitol Hill ammunition in the longer term fight to dismantle or reorganize the agency In the meantime lawmakers have been fighting the agency on two other fronts power and money On Tuesday the House of Representative Financial Services Committee approved a bill that would cut the CFPB s powers and require that its funding from the Federal Reserve be made dependent on the more typical Congressional appropriations process Democrats argued doing that would wipe out the agency s ability to go after financial wrongdoers which is its main reason for existing And in the days after the Wells Fargo settlement Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan repeated his calls for a reorganization of the agency and tweeted The CFPB supposedly exists to protect you but instead it tries to micro manage your everyday life STUMP SPEECH STAPLE Any real change to the activist agency will not likely come until after the November elections The CFPB which has taken on and drawn opposition from the payday lending and debt collection industries was originally championed by Senator Elizabeth Warren who is now stumping for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton A victory by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would strengthen the Republicans reform efforts said Benjamin Saul a partner at law firm White Case who has represented clients in CFPB cases Republicans main argument has been that there is too much power vested in the director resulting in the agency not being accountable to anyone Republicans have pushed for a five member commission to govern the agency and for lawmakers to decide its budget Questions posed by one of the PHH case s three judges during oral arguments at the U S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit this spring have led many to expect that the bureau s structure with a single director in charge of both rule making and enforcement will be dealt a serious blow The panel could decide the entire structure is unconstitutional or merely that a clause saying that the director can only be dismissed for cause is unconstitutional PHH has argued that the clause keeps the director from being accountable to either the president or Congress It s a full frontal constitutional attack on the CFPB and it s in front of a panel of judges in the D C circuit who seemed very hostile toward the CFPB during the oral arguments said Alan Kaplinsky who chairs the Consumer Financial Services Group at law firm Ballad Spahr A decision against the agency will literally cast a cloud over everything the CFPB has done since it was created he added The losing side could appeal to the Supreme Court or ask for a review from the entire district court The CFPB declined to comment for this story For now the agency is pushing ahead on several fronts including proposing a rule that would ban forced arbitration clauses from financial contracts The likelihood of the bureau fading into the background is low said Quyen Truong a partner at Stroock Stroock Lavan in Washington who was the assistant director and deputy general counsel for the CFPB until earlier this year
The CFPB s leadership is fervently committed to its mission Their intent is to move forward zealously regardless of which administration is in place |
WFC | Top U S bank regulator says Wells Fargo case shows sales risks | By Ross Kerber CAMBRIDGE Mass Reuters The U S Comptroller of the Currency said a recent case against Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co concerning phantom accounts highlights the risks other banks face in their efforts to sell new products to existing customers The comptroller Thomas Curry said on Thursday that other banks should review what risks may arise from efforts to cross sell to existing customers which he called a common strategy We expect banks to assess and to mitigate those risks in advance and on an ongoing basis said Curry speaking to Reuters after giving a speech at Harvard University The agency will consider the case of Wells Fargo in its regular safety and soundness exams of other banks he said Curry s office which oversees national banks was among the regulators with whom San Francisco based Wells Fargo reached a 190 million settlement last week over claims it created roughly two million accounts that customers did not want Curry said the Wells Fargo case boiled down to a matter of internal controls Banks need to adhere to the highest standards This is a culture issue You cannot as a bank abuse your customers trust he said at one point during his presentation In his remarks Curry also defended capital requirements and other standards for banks and said they have made the institutions more competitive coming out of the last decade s financial crisis He said it would be a poor time to relax rules as some have suggested as a way to encourage economic growth Now is not the time to change course Curry said He cited improvements to bank balance sheets such that Tier 1 common equity is now about 13 percent of risk weighted assets up from 9 percent in late 2008 while the leverage ratio is now at 9 3 percent about a third higher than in 2008 The high standards here in the U S have made our banks stronger in absolute terms and in comparative terms against foreign banks Curry said
In August the Bank of England eased a broad measure of capital adequacy for banks to help avoid crimping the flow of credit after the vote in June to leave the European Union |
WFC | U S lawmakers ask Wells about taking back bonuses linked to scam case | WASHINGTON Reuters Five Democratic U S Senators have asked Wells Fargo NYSE WFC if it plans to take back bonuses and other compensation to executives linked to the 2 million phony bank accounts that employees created to meet sales quotas The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other regulators announced last week that they had reached a 185 million settlement with the bank over the scam We write to ask whether the Board of Directors will invoke Wells Fargo s clawback authority to recover any of the compensation the company has provided to its senior executives including Carrie Tolstedt the former senior executive vice president of community banking they wrote in a letter dated Thursday and released on Friday The five Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren Ohio s Sherrod Brown Rhode Island s Jack Reed New Jersey s Robert Menendez and Oregon s Jeff Merkley said Wells Fargo has cause to claw back money under a policy it instituted after the 2007 09 financial crisis These clawback provisions are designed to prevent exactly what happened with Ms Toldstedt Shareholders and consumers bearing the burden of bank misconduct while senior executives walk away with multimillion dollar awards based on what the company later finds out are fraudulent practices they wrote Toldstedt led the bank division running the incentive program that pushed the employees to create fake accounts under real customers names often hurting those customers credit scores and received more than 20 million in annual bonuses between 2010 and 2015 they wrote
Wells CEO John Stumpf will testify on Tuesday before the Banking Committee where Brown is the most senior Democrat |
WFC | House committee to hold hearing on Wells Fargo sales practices | WASHINGTON Reuters The U S House Financial Services Committee has opened a probe into Wells Fargo s sales practices and plans to call the company s chief executive before lawmakers at a hearing later in September the committee chairman said on Friday Wells Fargo NYSE WFC has settled with regulators over allegations that its staff opened more than two million bank accounts and credit cards for customers without their consent to meet internal sales goals As part of last week s settlement Wells Fargo agreed to pay 185 million in penalties and 5 million to customers
Committee Chairman Representative Jeb Hensarling said the committee was requesting all records related to the allegations of fraudulent or improper activity by Wells Fargo employees from the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and also requested records from the company |
WFC | Wells Fargo faces proposed class action over bogus accounts | By Karen Freifeld NEW YORK Reuters Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co embroiled in a scandal over the opening of sham accounts was sued on Friday by customers who accused the bank of fraud and recklessness for its behavior The lawsuit was filed in the U S District Court in Utah and seeks class action status on behalf of hundreds of thousands of customers nationwide Wells Fargo did not immediately respond to requests for comment Last week the San Francisco based lender agreed to pay 190 million to settle regulatory charges that employees opened some 2 million accounts without customers knowledge in order to meet sales targets Wells Fargo the country s third largest bank by assets has said it has fired 5 300 people over the matter and would eliminate sales goals in its retail banking on Jan 1 2017 Federal prosecutors have begun examining Wells Fargo s practices and the bank s Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf is scheduled to testify before Congress next week In the complaint three plaintiffs said customers were hurt by abusive and fraudulent tactics used by employees who felt they had to do whatever it takes including selling products they did not need or want to meet sales quotas It was not immediately clear how the three named plaintiffs were specifically harmed by the bank s alleged wrongdoing
The case is Mitchell et al v Wells Fargo Bank NA et al U S District Court District of Utah No 16 00966 |
WFC | Activist Naylor calls on Wells Fargo to study breakup | BOSTON Reuters Activist investor Bart Naylor said on Thursday he has filed a shareholder resolution calling on Wells Fargo Co N WFC to study breaking up its business in the wake of a fake accounts scandal Naylor a financial policy analyst for consumer advocacy group Public Citizen has submitted similar measures at other large banks in recent years His latest calls on Wells Fargo s directors to study whether the divestiture of all non core banking business segments would enhance shareholder value |
WFC | U S home builder sentiment index highest in 11 months | NEW YORK Reuters A private gauge on U S home builder sentiment unexpectedly rose in September to its strongest level in 11 months prompted by renewed interest in home purchases following a summer lull
The National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo NYSE WFC said their index on builder confidence regarding newly built single family homes climbed to 65 points in September from a downwardly revised 59 in August
This was matched the level set in October 2015
The August figure was originally reported at 60
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a September reading of 60
As household incomes rise builders in many markets across the nation are reporting they are seeing more serious buyers a positive sign that the housing market continues to move forward NAHB Chairman Ed Brady a home builder and developer from Bloomington Illinois said in a statement
The single family market continues to make gradual gains and we expect this upward momentum will build throughout the remainder of the year and into 2017 Brady said
An upswing in home sales should support the U S economic expansion and the view the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates by the end of the year analysts said
U S household wealth has grown on a resilient real estate market It increased to 89 1 trillion in the second quarter Fed data released on Friday showed
In the latest survey the measure on current sales expectations rose 6 points to 71 while the gauge on sales outlook in the next six months increased 5 points to 71
The component on traffic of prospective buyers climbed 4 points to 48
By region the three month average indexes showed the Northeast and South each booked a 1 point gain to 42 and 64 respectively while the West increased 4 points to 73 The Midwest was unchanged at 55 NAHB said |
WFC | Why Investors Still Love Japan | Investors in the Japanese and U S stock markets may end up nursing the same hangover in 2014 but for now they probably won t let a little lull spoil the party Now that the Nikkei 225 has cooled a bit questions are arising over whether the index s nearly 70 percent surge over the past year has gotten overdone The simple answer is that while Japanese equities could be in for a brief pause the buy the dip mentality remains firmly in place When you re up 60 percent in seven months you re going to have a bit of a pullback that s to be expected Erik Davidson deputy chief investment officer at Wells Fargo Private Bank said in an interview Most U S investors are underexposed to Japan That s a big big risk |
WFC | Economic Reports An Orwellian Indicator | For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves and when once they had done this they would sooner or later realise that the privileged minority had no function and they would sweep it away In the long run a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance George Orwell 1984 The ability to perceive and understand the truth about Government Federal Reserve Industry economic reports is getting more difficult for those who only look at the headlines or take a cursory glance at the story without delving into the details I m sure eventually if Orwell s vision plays out accurately even further than it has already the details behind the headlines will be conveniently obfuscated Yes sometimes two plus two is four But sometimes it s five or even three Sometimes it s all of those at the same time from 1984 So today the NY Fed released its monthly Empire State Manufacturing report which showed that the general index increased from April s decline But the new orders index was 6 7 shipments index was 11 8 unfilled orders 14 5 labor index 10 I believe the source of the increase was derived from prices paid 21 and prices received 11 3 There was an increase in the outlook a touch feely sentiment poll but the 6 month future outlook was negative In fact beneath the headline number the report was down right ugly You can check my ability to read and copy numbers here The other Orwellian Orgasmic business report released today was the National Association of Homebuilders Confidence Index sponsored by Wells Fargo the biggest home mortgage lender With Wells Fargo as the promoter of the index you can see how this thing gets spun around on its head with Orwellian deception In fact is based The NAHB Wells Fargo Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months As you can see the questions asked are analogous to polling a classroom of kindergartners if they think they ll still like to eat candy at the end of the summer The truth is that based on all the data I ve been collecting and analyzing over the last 4 months it would appear as if the housing market is getting ready to fall off of a cliff Here s just a flavor of the information which I will be turning into a couple of articles this is from Mark Hanson a private consultant who has been the most accurate housing market analyst I ve observed over the past 12 years This morning June 5 2013 I was made aware that three large private mortgage bankers I follow closely for trends in mortgage finance ALL had mass layoffs last Friday and yesterday to the tune of 25 to 50 of their operations staff intake processing underwriting document drawing funding post closing This obviously means that my reports of refi apps being down 65 to 90 in the past 3 weeks are far more accurate than the lagging MBA index which is likely on its way to print multi year lows in the next month The point here is that the entities putting up the money to finance homes are aggressively reducing their operations i e that s how the big money is betting The new homebuilders index is reflecting sentiment One is hard cash one is hot air that belies the underlying facts Someone asked me a little earlier if I had any thoughts on what Bernanke might say on Wednesday after the FOMC meeting breaks My reply was no thoughts barely interested I went on to say that I d be interested if they talked about why the Government has already incurred a 626 billion spending deficit 8 months into its fiscal year end of May when the CBO released a report three weeks earlier on May 8th that projected a full FY deficit of 649 billion |
WFC | U S Housing Starts By The Numbers | New residential construction in the US increased last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 914 000 which is nearly 7 higher than April s count Meanwhile newly issued building permits declined 3 1 in May to a seasonally adjusted 974 000 annual pace vs the previous month Nonetheless the housing recovery is still very much alive and kicking But today s numbers are a reminder that growth is probably slowing which is only natural as new supply moves in line with demand The last year or so has been about playing catch up with demographics but the big adjustments are probably behind us The cycle for housing construction in other words is maturing Meantime the key risk in the months ahead can be summed up in one question How will the end of the Federal Reserve s quantitative easing monetary policy strategy impact housing Interest rates aren t likely to rise any time soon certainly not in tomorrow s FOMC announcement But with growing confidence that modest growth for the economy is the likely path ahead the crowd s increasingly focused on the recent rise in mortgage rates and what it means for housing recovery going forward The average 30 year fixed mortgage in the US has jumped to nearly 4 through last week vs 3 3 at the end of 2012 So far the higher costs of financing home purchases hasn t hurt the housing market per se in part because rates remain near record lows even after the recent increases New home sales in April for instance remained near post recession highs while home prices generally continue to increase New residential construction s annual pace remains strong as well with housing starts climbing 20 in May vs the same month a year ago That s off the highest growth rates reached in recent months but it s inevitable that the pace will slow as the cycle moves into the equivalent of middle age That said the outlook is still bright Confidence in the homebuilding industry jumped to a seven year high in yesterday s according to the National Association of Home Builders Wells Fargo Housing Market Index Builders are experiencing some relief in the headwinds that are holding back a more robust recovery NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe said in a press release Today s report is consistent with our forecast for a 29 increase in total housing starts this year which would mark the first time since 2007 that starts have topped the 1 million mark Higher rates in theory create headwinds for real estate activity but it s easy to overstate this risk factor while mortgages remain near historical lows Much depends on how and when the central bank moves monetary policy to something approximating normality That s a big unknown at this point in terms of timing and degree Assuming the process is handled properly and there s no reason to assume otherwise at this stage it s reasonable to expect that housing will continue to be a net plus for the economy for the foreseeable future The mistake is assuming that housing will continue to grow at extraordinary high rates That phase is probably behind us |
CMCSA | Asian shares mixed as Sydney down after jobs data Shanghai up | Investing com Shares in Australia fell on Thursday on mixed jobs data that showed a surge in new employment in July but also more people looking for work
The S P ASX 200 fell 0 71 while the Shanghai Composite gained 0 39 and the Nikkei 225 rose 0 78
Australia reported a sharp gain of 38 500 jobs in July beating an expected 10 000 increase while the unemployment rate ticked higher to 6 3 from the 6 0 seen and the participation rate jumped to 65 1 from 64 8
Overnight U S stocks were mixed on Wednesday as a rally in AAPL shares and indications of a potential delayed interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve offset a continuing downturn in energy stocks and a rout among major cable companies
Heavy losses in Disney shares helped extend a mild losing streak on the Dow Jones Industrial Average while the NASDAQ Composite Index and S P Composite Index posted moderate gains to end two day losing streaks of their own
The Dow lost 10 22 or 0 06 to 17 540 47 amid a sell off in Disney shares one day after the company downgraded its outlook for its cable networks in its quarterly earnings Disney CEO Robert Iger further roiled the cable sector by issuing a warning that the company could modify its cable network model in an effort to grab a larger share of the video streaming market As a result shares in Twenty First Century Fox Inc NASDAQ FOX Comcast Corporation NASDAQ CMCSA and Time Warner Inc NYSE NYSE TWX all fell by more than 4 5 on the session
The NASDAQ Composite index rose 34 40 or 0 67 to 5 139 95 while the S P 500 Composite index inched up 6 52 or 0 31 to 2 099 84 On the S P 500 seven of 10 sectors closed in the green as stocks in the Technology Consumer Goods and Health Care sectors led
On Wednesday data showed that service sector activity in the U S grew at the fastest pace since August 2005 in July
The Institute of Supply Management said its non manufacturing purchasing manager s index rose to 60 3 last month from 56 0 in June above forecasts for a reading of 56 2
The data came after payroll processing firm ADP said non farm private employment rose 185 000 last month below expectations for an increase of 215 000 The economy created 229 000 jobs in June whose figure was downwardly revised from a previously reported increase of 237 000
Separately the U S Bureau of Economic Analysis said that the trade deficit widened to 43 84 billion in June from 40 94 billion in May whose figure was revised from a previously reported deficit of 40 7 billion
Analysts had expected the U S trade deficit to widen to 42 8 billion in June
Investors were now turning their attention to the upcoming U S jobs report for July which could reinforce expectations for higher interest rates |
CMCSA | NBC extends soccer deal with England s Premier League | Reuters NBC Sports Group the sole broadcaster of Premier League matches in the United States said on Monday it has agreed to a six year extension of the deal that has seen thriving viewership for top flight English soccer in recent seasons The deal will continue to make all 380 Premier League matches each season available to fans on the NBC Sports Group s platforms including NBC NBCSN USA Network and Telemundo Financial terms of the extension were not announced We are excited to continue our tremendous partnership with the Premier League and we look forward to presenting the world s finest soccer league to Americans for many years to come said NBC Sports Group Chairman Mark Lazarus As sports fans there s nothing better than waking up on a weekend morning to live and relevant events NBC is in the final season of a three year 250 million deal with the Premier League The new deal will run through the 2021 22 season NBC is a unit of Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA NBC Sports has done a fantastic job broadcasting the Barclays LONDON BARC Premier League for the last two seasons and we are extremely pleased that they have invested in our U S rights said Premier League Executive Chairman Richard Scudamore
The Premier League averaged 479 000 viewers on NBC and NBCSN last year up 9 percent from its debut season in 2013 14 |
CMCSA | AT T ups revenue profit forecast after DirecTV buy | By Malathi Nayak and Lehar Maan Reuters AT T Inc NYSE T said on Wednesday it expects revenue earnings and free cash flow to grow through 2018 following its DirecTV purchase and investments in Mexico though it also sees higher capital expenditure As the U S wireless market reaches saturation AT T hopes to tap into DirecTV s video assets and has been expanding its wireless operations in Mexico to grow revenue AT T which closed its 48 5 billion acquisition of DirecTV in July also plans to deliver video content through ad supported TV streaming and mobile video products to unlock new revenue The No 2 U S wireless carrier said in a statement it expects revenue to grow in the double digit range for the rest of 2015 The company which previously forecast capital expenditure of about 18 billion said it sees that rising to about 21 billion AT T forecast 2015 adjusted profit of 2 62 per share to 2 68 per share Analysts on average were expecting a profit of 2 60 per share according to Thomson Reuters I B E S In bringing together AT T and DirecTV we ve articulated a simple goal the development of a premium effortless entertainment experience delivered anywhere chief executive Randall Stephenson told analysts on a conference call AT T shares fell 2 7 percent to 33 71 in afternoon trading Through Tuesday s close of 34 65 they had risen 3 2 percent this year The newly expanded AT T leapfrogs the biggest U S cable company Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA The company serves more than 26 million U S customers and more than 19 million in Latin America making it the world s biggest pay TV company AT T has bundled its wireless service with DirecTV s pay TV offerings to cross sell products across its expanded customer base The new packages which were rolled out on Monday have exceeded sales expectations on launch Stephenson said without providing details On Wednesday the company maintained its forecast of 2 5 billion or more in cost savings or synergies from the DirecTV deal on an annual basis through 2018 In response to an analyst s question about whether AT T s cost savings forecast was conservative chief financial officer John Stephens said he had to factor in foreign currency fluctuations in DirecTV s markets such as Brazil and Venezuela The target of 2 5 billion in cost savings is achievable and it could break to the upside Stephenson said
The company is creating a new category of combined wireless and TV services and that s why the cost savings goal did not include new revenue opportunities such as cross selling products he said |
WFC | U S Treasury s Lew faults bad behavior at Wells Fargo | By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK Reuters U S Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Tuesday federal regulators were correct to punish Wells Fargo Co N WFC for setting up sham accounts without customers knowledge but stopped short of calling for a clawback of pay from the head of the unit where the wrongdoing took place It s bad behavior they were correct to take action against Lew said at the CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha Conference in New York This is unacceptable behavior and the kind of behavior we ought to catch and stop Last week the U S Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and two other regulators fined Wells Fargo 185 million for creating more than two million fake accounts for products such as credit and debit cards to help employees at the third largest U S bank by assets to meet aggressive sales targets The civil enforcement action called into question Wells Fargo s oversight of cross selling long a central part of its business model in which employees encourage customers to buy products or to open accounts they might not otherwise consider Wells Fargo based in San Francisco said it fired 5 300 workers as a result of the conduct The bank on Tuesday said it would eliminate all product sales goals in retail banking beginning Jan 1 Lew used the Wells Fargo case to defend the enactment of the 2010 Dodd Frank financial reforms which led to the creation of the CFPB saying This is something that our watchdogs found Some lawmakers have called for a criminal investigation and some commentators have suggested that Wells Fargo should claw back some compensation from Carrie Tolstedt the community banking executive who was in charge of the unit responsible for the wrongdoing On Monday Fortune magazine said Tolstedt will receive a 124 6 million compensation package in connection with her recently announced retirement Lew did not discuss whether prosecutions were warranted but said no executive was too big to jail and declined to discuss whether a clawback from Tolstedt was warranted
Still he said the Wells Fargo episode was a wake up call for the banking industry to show that the culture and compensation make a difference |
WFC | House panel okays Dodd Frank revamp amid partisan rancor | By Lisa Lambert WASHINGTON Reuters A House of Representatives panel on Tuesday approved a proposal to revamp the Dodd Frank Wall Street reform law after a hearing where lawmakers verbally tussled over rules enacted in the aftermath of the 2007 09 financial crisis The Financial Services Committee voted to send the bill introduced this summer by committee chairman Republican Jeb Hensarling to the full House to consider No Democrat on the committee voted for the measure which would allow banks to choose between complying with Dodd Frank or meeting tougher capital requirements It would also reorganize the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau CFPB a watchdog created through Dodd Frank that last week penalized Wells Fargo NYSE WFC for creating millions of fake accounts under customers names The 2010 Dodd Frank law passed in the wake of the financial crisis has drawn the ire of most banks and Republicans in Congress They have said Congress went too far in trying to clamp down on Wall Street and the law imposes burdensome requirements and gives regulators too much power The CPFB has been a particular target for Republicans who do not like that it is governed by a single director and say it reaches beyond its authority in enforcement During the hearing Democrats cited the Wells case where the CFPB levied its largest ever fine of 100 million criticizing the panel s Republican majority Democrats said that without Dodd Frank the U S government would have had no tools to fight the widespread fraud which led to the firing of 5 300 Wells employees I am particularly disturbed that this bill would take away the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau s ability to penalize companies for practices that are abusive to consumers said New York s Carolyn Maloney a Democrat echoing many in her party The chairman s bill strips from the CFPB its authority to punish abusive conduct which means Wells Fargo would have gotten off even easier Meanwhile Randy Neugebauer the Texas Republican who has advocated creating a five member commission to govern the CFPB said the bureau has not been politically neutral and is not transparent I remain concerned that many bureau actions demonstrate regulatory paternalism that assumes the American consumer doesn t know how to make choices for themselves he said at the hearing
Corresponding legislation has not been introduced in the Senate and Obama would be unlikely to sign the bill even both chambers of the Republican led Congress passed it Dodd Frank is one of the Democratic president s signature pieces of legislation |
WFC | Wells Fargo may take more disciplinary action over sales abuses | By Dan Freed Reuters Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co may take additional disciplinary action over sales abuses that led to 185 million in penalties and the firing of 5 300 employees Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry said at an industry conference on Tuesday He said the bank will take a big wide fresh look at who knew what and when and what else might have been done Shrewsberry said the review would impact people at all levels of the organization Last week Wells Fargo paid 185 million in fines and 5 million to customers after reaching a settlement with three regulators over sales abuses as employees opened sham credit card debit card and other accounts to meet aggressive sales targets The phantom accounts resulted in some customers being hit with fees for insufficient funds The incident has also brought attention to the compensation of Carrie Tolstedt who stepped down as head of the bank s Community Banking unit in July According to the bank s 2015 proxy Tolstedt received more than 9 million in cash and stock in 2015 and she has more than 2 5 million in Wells Fargo shares which would be worth about 120 million at Tuesday s prices Wells Fargo announced Tuesday it would eliminate product sales goals for retail bankers one of several recent measures it has taken to try and get in front of a gathering public storm over the sales scandal In a interview with CNBC Tuesday U S Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said the enforcement action highlighted bad behavior by Wells Fargo adding how that flows through in terms of next consequences is going to depend on the facts of the case A Wells Fargo spokeswoman declined to comment on Lew s remarks A Wells Fargo spokeswoman said Tolstedt was not fired but made a decision to retire at the end of this year Tolstedt could not be reached The issue has also attracted the attention of U S Democratic presidential nominee Hilary Clinton and at least seven U S Senators have signed letters calling for an investigation Shrewsberry said 10 percent of the 5 300 employees who were fired were managers including store managers He said roughly two thirds of the employees disciplined were in the Southwestern U S and they were largely people trying to meet minimum goals to hang onto their job Shrewsberry said the bank increased staffing to prepare for the fallout over the regulatory settlement but has so far seen very very low volumes of customer reaction |
WFC | U S import prices post first drop in six months but trend improving | By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON Reuters U S import prices fell for the first time in six months in August on weak petroleum and food costs but the declining trend is slowing as oil prices stabilize and the dollar s rally fades Still Wednesday s report from the Labor Department suggested the near term inflation outlook would remain tame strengthening the argument for the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates steady next week Import prices slipped 0 2 percent last month after gaining 0 1 percent in July August s drop was the first since February and was led by a 2 8 percent decline in petroleum prices Imported petroleum prices fell 3 6 percent in July In the 12 months through August import prices fell 2 2 percent the smallest decrease since October 2014 after declining 3 7 percent in July Most Fed officials expect the gradual climb toward the inflation target to remain intact and the diminishing drag from import price deflation will help but it s going to take time said Sam Bullard a senior economist at Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Securities in Charlotte North Carolina We expect the Fed to remain cautious leaving rates unchanged next week August s weak inflation reading added to slower job growth soft manufacturing and services sectors surveys in reducing the likelihood of an interest rate hike at the Fed s Sept 20 21 policy meeting Fed Governor Lael Brainard said on Monday she wanted to see stronger consumer spending data and signs of rising inflation before raising interest rates The U S central bank lifted its benchmark overnight interest rate at the end of last year for the first time in nearly a decade but has held it steady since amid concerns over persistently low inflation U S financial markets were little moved by the data DOLLAR OIL DRAG WANING Import prices have been constrained by dollar strength and cheap oil That together with sluggish wage growth has left inflation persistently running below the Fed s 2 percent target But the dollar rally appears to have peaked early this year and oil prices have pushed off multi decade lows Import prices excluding petroleum were unchanged in August after climbing 0 5 percent in July They were down 0 9 percent in the 12 months through August the smallest year on year decrease since December 2014 In spite of the month to month volatility we view the underlying trend in imported deflation as improving and consistent with a gradual waning of the drag from the stronger dollar and lower global commodity prices said Blerina Uruci an economist at Barclays LON BARC in Washington We expect an improvement in imported inflation to help stabilize domestic core goods prices in the coming months The nation continued to import deflation from China with the cost of goods imported from that country falling 0 2 percent last month Prices for Chinese imports have not recorded a monthly increase since December 2014 August s decrease was led by a 1 0 percent decline in the price of imported communications equipment There were also declines in the cost of imported goods from Canada the European Union and Mexico The cost of imports from Japan however rose 0 3 percent the largest gain since August 2011 Overall prices for imported capital goods were unchanged last month while the cost of imported automobiles fell 0 2 percent Imported consumer goods prices excluding automobiles slipped 0 1 percent and the cost of imported food decreased 0 5 percent last month
The report also showed export prices fell 0 8 percent in August That was the biggest drop since January and followed a 0 2 percent increase the prior month Export prices were down 2 4 percent from a year ago |
WFC | Activist says Wells Fargo to face critical shareholder resolutions | BOSTON Reuters An activist investor said on Wednesday it is inevitable that Wells Fargo Co N WFC will face critical shareholder resolutions after the giant bank agreed to a 190 million settlement with regulators over fake consumer accounts
Tim Smith who leads shareholder engagement efforts at Walden Asset Management in Boston said his firm is talking with investors including state pension funds and labor groups about submitting resolutions for the bank s springtime shareholder meeting that may call for things like clawing back the pay of executives or requiring the company to report on its governance procedures |
WFC | U S prosecutors investigate Wells Fargo s sales practices source | By Nate Raymond NEW YORK Reuters U S prosecutors have begun an investigation related to sales practices at Wells Fargo Co N WFC that led the bank to agree to a 190 million settlement with regulators a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday The U S Attorneys Offices in Manhattan and San Francisco are investigating Wells Fargo the person said following a settlement announced on Sept 8 over claims that some customers were pushed into fee generating accounts they never requested Wells Fargo declined to comment on Wednesday A spokeswoman for U S Attorney s Office in Manhattan also declined to comment We don t comment on the existence or non existence of any investigation said Abraham Simmons a spokesman for the U S Attorney s Office in San Francisco The investigation was first reported by the Wall Street Journal The federal prosecutors probes add a new headache for the company which has been hit hard by allegations that its staff opened more than two million bank accounts and credit cards for customers without their consent to meet internal sales goals As part of last week s settlement Wells Fargo agreed to pay 185 million in penalties and 5 million to customers Wells Fargo also said that it had fired 5 300 employees over the sales conduct That settlement was with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney The bank neither admitted nor denied the allegations as part of the settlement On Tuesday Chief Executive John Stumpf apologized and said the management takes responsibility for the problems identified in the settlement Although the bank eliminated sales goals for retail staff Stumpf said cross selling products from various businesses to customers is still important to expand its business
This version of the story has been refiled to correct second paragraph to make clear U S Attorneys Offices are plural |
WFC | Activist Needmor calls on Wells Fargo to split Chair CEO roles | BOSTON Reuters Activist investor Needmor Fund said on Thursday it filed a shareholder resolution with Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co calling on the bank to split the roles of Chairman and Chief Executive saying management needs strong oversight from the board in light of the recent scandal involving fake accounts Both jobs are currently held by John Stumpf and the bank defeated a similar resolution at its last annual meeting in April The resolution filed by Needmor Fund of Toledo which said it owns 2 225 Wells Fargo shares calls for the split roles to be phased in for the next CEO transition |
WFC | Where Are All The U S Construction Jobs | The concept of U S housing shortage discussed here is difficult to fathom but people who are on the transaction side of the housing business are beginning to take notice Bloomberg Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf said there aren t enough homes for sale in some markets and that a rebound in sales prices and construction will bolster future earnings If anything today there s probably a shortage of housing on the market Stumpf 59 said on a conference call today It s not true in every market and in every price range but when I m out talking with Realtors and customers the amount of supply especially in the lower end or starter houses there s not a lot of supply out there The various demographics based data such as homes for sale as a fraction of working age population below clearly supports this assessment This demand is starting to have an effect on U S housing starts which are still at relatively depressed levels but are showing signs of life Given the improvements in housing starts where are all the new construction jobs Ignoring the various seasonal adjustments which are fairly unreliable in this sector the raw data shows construction job openings above 2009 levels but by no means on a major growth trajectory Similarly the 2013 trend in the overall residential construction jobs in the U S is not materially different from other post crisis years The chart below includes 2006 to put hings in perspective It seems that some construction firms have been operating with enough slack to absorb new construction orders without a great deal of additional hiring As the peak construction season approaches however it remains to be seen if this post crisis pattern of weak hiring changes substantially |
WFC | Top Trade Ideas Week Of May 6 2013 Bonus Idea | Here is your Bonus Idea with links to the full Top Ten Wells Fargo Ticker WFCWells Fargo WFC is moving back up to resistance at 38 after a brief pullback following completion of the bearish Shark pattern discussed in Fins in the Shark Tank last week This was a 55 retracement satisfying the Harmonic The Relative Strength Index RSI is bullish and moving higher with a Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator MACD that is also rising Both support further upside price action The Spinning Top doji from Friday signals indecision but that can mean continuation higher as well There is resistance higher at 38 20 and some room above that with a Measured move higher to 39 70 40 Support below comes at 37 40 and 36 70 followed by 36 25 Trade Idea 1 Buy the stock on a move over 38 20 with a stop at 37 75 Trade Idea 2 Buy the May 38 Calls offered at 18 cents late Friday on a move over 37 80 Open Interest at 38k contracts overwhelms any other strike in this Expiry Trade Idea 3 Buy the May June 38 Call Calendar 39 cents Trade Idea 4 Sell the June October 36 Put Calendar 96 cent credit Trade Idea 5 Buy the June October 39 Call Calendar 78 cents and consider selling the June October 36 Put Calendar 96 cent credit to fund it After reviewing over 1 000 charts I have found some good setups for the week These were selected and should be viewed in the context of the broad Market Macro picture reviewed Saturday Gold continues its consolidation with a downside bias while Crude Oil works higher in the neutral zone The U S Dollar Index looks better lower while U S Treasuries are biased lower within the longer uptrend The Shanghai Composite is at support but looks better for a break lower while Emerging Markets are looking strong Volatility looks to remain subdued keeping the bias higher for the equity index ETF s SPY IWM and QQQ despite their moves higher to new highs Their charts agree and point higher but look better on the weekly timeframe as the daily views show some signs of being extended with Friday s moves Use this information as you prepare for the coming week and trad em well The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog please see my page for my full disclaimer |
WFC | Wells Fargo Climbing Higher | While most bank stocks are trading far below their highs Wells appears headed into the ozone Their all in bet on residential mortgages has paid off as the housing bubble er boom washes away any vestigial notions about real estate being risky From a technical standpoint the stock looks bound for a minimum 39 85 over the near term Although that would still leave it 5 shy of the 44 52 peak achieved before the Great Financial Crash of 2008 09 the peak would likely become magnetic once WFC has broken the 40 barrier |
CMCSA | Comcast posts in line results as Internet NBC Universal units grow | By Malathi Nayak NEW YORK Reuters Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA the largest U S cable operator posted in line second quarter results as its high speed Internet and NBC Universal businesses grew amid a drop in pay TV subscriber departures Comcast also the No 1 U S high speed Internet provider said on Thursday total revenue rose 11 3 percent to 18 74 billion in the second quarter ended June 30 Analysts on average had forecast revenue of 18 14 billion according to Thomson Reuters I B E S Net income attributable to Comcast rose 7 3 percent to 2 14 billion or 84 cents per share from a year earlier Profit was up 10 percent from a year ago to 84 cents per share after excluding items such as investments and acquisition related items matching Wall Street estimates The company which lost 8 000 video customers last quarter reigned in subscriber losses in the second quarter compared to a year ago It said 69 000 subscribers departed from April through June but it was less than the 144 000 users who left a year earlier Wall Street keeps a close watch on the number of new video subscribers as pay TV operators fight to keep customers amidst intense competition from streaming video services such as Dish Corp s Sling TV Earlier this month Comcast said it is beta testing a new cable streaming service called Stream which will broadcast live TV from HBO and about a dozen other networks for 15 per month The new service lets Comcast s Xfinity Internet customers stream live TV over phones tablets and laptops Comcast s high speed Internet customer additions dropped 12 percent to 180 000 but revenue from the business rose about 10 percent to 3 1 billion Business services revenue increased 20 4 percent to 1 16 billion At NBC Universal revenue rose 20 2 percent to 7 23 billion from a year earlier Revenue at the film studio rose 93 percent from a year earlier to 2 3 billion bolstered by its summer blockbusters Furious 7 and Jurassic World The Universal theme park business with its popular Harry Potter attraction in Florida saw revenue rise 26 percent to 773 million Advertising revenue at cable networks fell 3 percent in the quarter to 917 million amid a decline in ratings that has hit networks across the TV industry The NBC broadcast network s ad revenue rose a modest 0 3 percent to 1 25 billion
Shares of Comcast which abandoned its proposed 45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable Inc NYSE TWC in late April closed at 64 50 on Wednesday on the Nasdaq |
CMCSA | NBCUniversal close to investing in BuzzFeed source | LOS ANGELES Reuters Comcast Corp s O CMCSA NBCUniversal film and television unit is close to making an investment in online publisher BuzzFeed and is in talks to raise its stake in Vox Media a person with knowledge of both sets of discussions said on Thursday The company is negotiating to inject 250 million into BuzzFeed according to the Re code tech news website which first reported that NBCUniversal was poised to invest in the digital media companies That would value BuzzFeed at about 1 5 billion Re code said The discussions are more advanced with BuzzFeed than with Vox according to the person with knowledge of the talks Re code said NBCUniversal s potential investment in Vox would value the digital company at 850 million Comcast already owns a minority stake in Vox Spokespeople for NBCU BuzzFeed and Vox declined to comment
BuzzFeed and Vox have built audiences among younger internet focused consumers who are less likely to watch traditional television BuzzFeed known for online list based articles and quizzes has expanded into news video and film Vox owns several websites including technology focused The Verge and Re code |
CMCSA | Comcast s NBC blocks Sling TV ads Dish says | By Malathi Nayak NEW YORK Reuters Dish Network Corp said on Friday that Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA Corp s broadcast television network NBC is not airing ads promoting its Sling TV video streaming service in some markets While NBC part of Comcast s NBCUniversal film and TV unit has banned Sling TV ads other major networks such as ABC CBS Fox are running its commercials Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch said in a blog post NBCUniversal s four locally owned stations in New York San Diego San Francisco and Washington D C have declined to air Sling TV s ads a spokesman for NBCUniversal said without providing a reason behind the move Satellite TV provider Dish s 20 per month Sling TV service lets viewers who shun pricey cable and satellite subscriptions watch television over the Internet Traditional pay TV companies are struggling to retain subscribers and online video streaming services such as Sling TV and Sony Corp s PlayStation Vue have rolled out in recent months The battle between new online video services and traditional pay TV companies is being closely watched as viewer habits shift and the television industry undergoes a seismic change Maybe these commercials hit a little too close to home for them when we call out tactics like price hikes equipment fees and just all around terrible customer service Sling TV s Lynch said in a video blog
Earlier this month Comcast said it is beta testing a new service that would let its Xfinity Internet customers stream live TV over phones tablets and laptops for 15 per month |
CMCSA | AT T to bundle wireless service with DirecTV s pay TV offerings | Reuters The No 2 U S wireless carrier AT T Inc NYSE T said it will bundle its wireless service with DirecTV s pay TV offerings after the 48 5 billion deal was approved last month The company and the biggest satellite TV provider DirecTV became the country s largest pay TV company completing their merger after receiving final regulatory approval The combination with DirecTV was aimed at beefing up Dallas based AT T s packages of cellular broadband TV and fixed line phone services In an offer starting on Aug 10 AT T will provide HD and DVR service for up to four TV receivers unlimited talk and text for four wireless lines and 10GB of wireless data The newly expanded AT T leapfrogs the biggest U S cable company Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA Corp
The company said it would serve more than 55 million customers in the United States Latin America and the Caribbean making it the world s biggest pay TV company |
WFC | McIlroy overhauls Casey to triumph in Boston | Reuters Rory McIlroy ended a 16 month title drought on the PGA Tour with a brilliant last day charge as he won the Deutsche Bank DE DBKGn Championship by two shots on Monday in Norton Massachusetts A distant six strokes behind overnight leader Paul Casey heading into the final round at the TPC Boston McIlroy fired a sparkling six under par 65 in blustery conditions to post a 15 under total of 269 The Northern Irish world number five ended his round in style hitting an exquisite bunker shot to within two feet at the par five 18th for a tap in four his seventh birdie of the day as he clinched his 12th PGA Tour victory Englishman Casey hunting his second career win on the U S circuit led by three strokes after 54 holes but had to settle for second place after closing with a 73 McIlroy who had not tasted victory on the PGA Tour since the Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Championship in May last year pinpointed his remarkable recovery after a horrible start to Friday s opening round as key to his success at the TPC Boston Those last 15 holes on Friday were definitely a turning point not just in this tournament but maybe in my season to play the last 15 holes in four under McIlroy told Golf Channel The 27 year old ended up shooting a level par 71 in the opening round after ominously starting out par bogey triple bogey Then I tweaked my putting grip on Saturday morning holed some putts on Saturday and went with it and got some momentum said McIlroy It is amazing to think how I started this tournament and what was going through my mind after three holes and then all of a sudden I m standing here with a trophy It is pretty cool McIlroy whose victory lifted him to third in the world rankings was delighted to regain form after missing the cut at the PGA Championship then tying for 31st at The Barclays LON BARC in his previous two starts I came off the back of a rough couple of weeks he said I was thinking Here we go again and that it was going to be a little bit of a grind and a bit of a struggle Things can turn around quickly in this game and they did for me this week American Jimmy Walker who landed his first major title at the PGA Championship in July carded a 70 to finish third at 12 under in the second of the PGA Tour s four playoff events with Australian Adam Scott 65 a further stroke back in fourth
The top 70 players on the FedExCup points list advance to this week s BMW Championship in Carmel Indiana where the leading 30 will qualify for the Sep 22 25 Tour Championship finale in Atlanta |
WFC | Volatile gold demand tarnishes U S commodity fund sales | By Trevor Hunnicutt NEW YORK Reuters Turning fortunes for gold pushed withdrawals from U S based commodity funds to their highest levels since April Investment Company Institute data for the latest week showed on Wednesday Investors pulled 601 million from those mutual funds and exchange traded funds during the week through Aug 31 the trade group said though many gold funds have seen a rebound in recent days The fickle buying and selling of funds such as SPDR Gold Shares NYSE GLD comes after some U S monetary policymakers suggested they favored raising interest rates sooner rather than later though weak economic data have damped their case Hiking rates would raise the opportunity cost of holding assets such as gold which despite its strong price gains this year yields little Precious metals commodities funds tracked by Thomson Reuters Lipper a research service have recorded negative performance for the four weeks through the end of August But the flows have started to rebound alongside of a rise in the price of gold recently GLD took in 607 million on Tuesday according to FactSet Research Systems Inc which tracks the ETF market John LaForge head of real asset strategy at the Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co s Investment Institute said he does not see concerns over central bank policy or economic problems helping support gold prices further If you look at gold versus the other major assets it s overpriced relative to its history said LaForge It was a fairly quiet end to August for other asset classes Stock funds posted 910 million in outflows ICI data showed a more moderate figure than the 3 3 billion in outflows averaged over the prior five weeks
Bond funds which unlike stock funds have been popular for the better part of the year took in 2 5 billion according to the ICI That is a slower pace of inflows for the funds compared to the 7 5 billion prior five week average |
WFC | Wells Fargo will pay 190 million to settle customer fraud case | By Patrick Rucker and Dan Freed WASHINGTON Reuters Wells Fargo NYSE WFC has long been the envy of the banking industry for its ability to sell multiple products to the same customer but regulators on Thursday said those practices went too far in some instances The largest U S bank by market capitalization will pay 185 million in penalties and 5 million to customers that regulators say were pushed into fee generating accounts they never requested We regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request the bank said of a settlement reached Thursday with California prosecutors and federal regulators The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will receive 100 million of the total penalties the largest fine ever levied by the federal agency Today s action should serve notice to the entire industry that financial incentive programs if not monitored carefully carry serious risks that can have serious legal consequences said CFPB Director Richard Cordray Los Angeles officials and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency were also party to the settlement In a complaint filed in May 2015 California prosecutors alleged that Wells Fargo pushed customers into costly financial products that they did not need or even request Bank employees were told that the average customer tapped six financial tools but that they should push households to use eight products according to the complaint The bank opened more than 2 million deposit and credit card accounts that may not have been authorized the CFPB said Thursday Wells Fargo spokeswoman Mary Eshet said the bank fired 5 300 employees over inappropriate sales conduct The firings took place over a five year period Eshet said adding that the bank has 100 000 employees in its branches Wells Fargo regularly releases numbers about how many products it sells to customers a practice it calls cross sell Its wealth and investment management unit for example sold 10 55 products per retail banking household in November 2015 up from 10 49 a year earlier according to the bank s annual 10 K financial filing In the second quarter however the bank changed how it tallies up some of those numbers and said it was considering more changes Piper Jaffray analyst Kevin Barker said he does not think the crackdown on Wells Fargo will have much of an impact on others in the industry
I think this is unique to Wells Fargo and their particular situation and how hard they push on cross sell he said |
WFC | Bank rally on shaky legs as traders assess rate hike odds | By Sinead Carew NEW YORK Reuters A rare run of outperformance by U S bank shares appears to have hit a wall as a spate of soft readings on the economy have tempered bets that the Federal Reserve might raise rates soon The S P 500 s bank index is up nearly 9 percent so far in the third quarter broadly outpacing the wider S P s 1 4 percent advance The group which still lags badly on the year with a decline of 4 6 percent is on pace for its first quarterly outperformance in more than a year as investors took clues from an increasingly hawkish string of Fed speakers throughout August Low interest rates are a drag on bank profits and the prospect of even a modest increase in borrowing costs would provide some welcome relief Bank loans are increasing and the possibility of a rate increase means they can reasonably be expected to be doing more business and making more money on it said Brad McMillan chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial in Waltham Massachusetts Paul Nolte portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago said bank stocks have been moving on Fed expectations rallying as expectations for a rise increase and falling when those expectations become clouded And as if on cue expectations have clouded since September kicked off with data on the job market car sales and the services and manufacturing sectors all undershooting forecasts The probability of a rate hike at the Fed s next meeting on Sept 20 21 have sunk to just 24 percent from around 35 percent in late August according to the CME Group s FedWatch tool Bank stocks have slipped 2 percent since then and Nolte for one thinks they will likely stay soft in the run up to this month s meeting and fall further afterward A catalyst for a rebound could come soon in October however as the next earnings reporting season gets underway said John Praveen chief investment strategist at Prudential LON PRU International Investments Advisers LLC in Newark New Jersey And after that the greater possibility of a hike in December will begin to come into focus bringing with it another potential tailwind for bank shares CME s FedWatch shows December as a more likely bet with the current probability around 55 percent Still expect the next couple of weeks to be a choppy affair for the sector and the market more broadly as rate hike expectations get whipsawed by some key data Readings on retail sales inflation and consumer sentiment are all due in the week ahead and a final rash of Fed speakers will come into focus Monday It would take a big increase in retail sales increase in inflation to get the Fed to even think twice about September said Paul Christopher head global market strategist at Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Investment Institute in St Louis Missouri
Friday offered a taste of how the run up to the meeting could play out with the S P falling 2 45 percent its biggest drop since June after Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said the Fed faced increasing risks if it waited too long to raise rates again nL1N1BL109 Bank stocks performed better than the overall market but still slid 1 2 percent |
WFC | U S regulator sees no evidence of Wells Fargo sales problem at other banks | By Dan Freed Reuters There is probably no broader problem in the U S banking industry over abusive sales practices despite the penalties imposed on Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co s recently the head of a federal consumer protection agency said on Monday Richard Cordray director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau CFPB said during an interview on CNBC that he does not see problems similar to those discovered at Wells Fargo occurring on any kind of systematic basis at any other bank The CFPB and two other regulators fined Wells Fargo a total of 185 million last Thursday The bank paid another 5 million to customers for creating more than two million fake accounts for products like credit and debit cards to meet aggressive sales targets The enforcement action caught the attention of U S presidential candidate Hillary Clinton who on Friday applauded Cordray s agency censuring Wells Fargo for what she called outrageous behavior On Monday five lawmakers wrote a letter to U S Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby calling for an investigation Credit rating agency Moody s Investors Service also commented saying the embarrassing episode would have a negative impact on Wells Fargo s outstanding debt Wells Fargo fired 5 300 employees who were involved in sales practices described by the settlement |
WFC | Wells Fargo to end sales goals for retail bankers | Reuters Wells Fargo Co N WFC the largest U S bank by market capitalization said on Tuesday it would eliminate all product sales goals in retail banking starting next year The move comes days after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau CFPB and two other regulators fined the bank 185 million over abusive sales practices The bank paid another 5 million to customers for creating more than two million fake accounts for products like credit and debit cards to meet aggressive sales targets Customers should know that Wells Fargo retail bankers are always focused on their best interests Chief Executive John Stumpf said in a statement on Tuesday The enforcement action caught the attention of U S presidential candidate Hillary Clinton who on Friday applauded the CFPB censuring Wells Fargo for what she called outrageous behavior On Monday five lawmakers wrote a letter to U S Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby calling for an investigation Credit rating agency Moody s Investors Service also commented saying the embarrassing episode would have a negative impact on Wells Fargo s outstanding debt
Wells Fargo said it had fired 5 300 employees involved in the sales practices described by the settlement |
WFC | Wells Fargo to eliminate sales goals for retail bankers | Wells Fargo NYSE WFC said on Tuesday it would eliminate all product sales goals in retail banking starting next year
The move comes days after regulators fined the bank 185 million over abusive sales practices
The bank paid another 5 million to customers
Bankers created more than two million fake accounts to meet aggressive sales targets
Customers should know that Wells Fargo is always focused on their best interests Chief Executive John Stumpf said |
WFC | Top 10 Events April 15 19 | The G20 meeting and notable economic data from Japan will place the yen in the center of the market s attention as currency wars once again becomes a hot topic for discussion in the week ahead In preparation for the new trading week here is the outlook for the Top 10 spotlight economic events that will move the markets around the globe 1 CNY China GDP Gross Domestic Product the main measure of economic activity and growth Sun Apr 14 10 00 pm ET The world s second largest economy was expected to hum right along with 8 0 q y expansion in the first quarter of 2013 after growing by 7 9 q y in the final quarter of last year However the GDP report disappointed with slower pace of growth by 7 7 q y in Q1 2013 The weak Chinese data brought down commodity prices and dragged lower the higher yielding commodity currencies the AUD and NZD 2 GBP U K CPI Consumer Price Index the main measure of inflation preferred by the Bank of England Tues Apr 16 4 30 am ET Inflationary pressures in the U K are forecast to remain at 2 8 y y in March same as the 2 8 y y reading in the previous month If the threat of a triple dip recession in the U K materializes inflation will not be an obstacle for the Bank of England to ease monetary policy further in upcoming months 3 EUR Euro zone ZEW Economic Sentiment Index a leading indicator of economic conditions measuring the outlook of financial experts Tues Apr 16 5 00 am ET After a few months of improvement in the economic outlook the ZEW index is expected to pull back with a reading of 45 6 in April compared with 48 5 in the previous month A new sign that economic conditions in the euro area are deteriorating could weigh on the EUR as the market begins to price expectations that the European Central Bank might start to play QE catch up with the Fed and the Bank of Japan as early as the next meeting on May 2 4 USD U S Housing Starts an important gauge of housing market activity measuring new home construction Tues Apr 16 8 30 am ET Housing starts for the month of March are expected to be a bit higher to 924K from 917K in February The report carries a risk of a negative surprise following another leading indicator of housing market activity the National Association of Home Builders Wells Fargo index which fell to 42 in April from 44 in March the third consecutive month of decline 5 USD U S Industrial Production the main gauge of industrial activity measuring the output of factories mines and utilities Tues Apr 16 9 15 am ET Industrial production is forecast to increase for another month but at a slower pace by 0 3 m m in March after rising by 0 8 m m in February 6 GBP Bank of England Meeting Minutes a detailed report of the bank s latest meeting containing an outlook on monetary policy and the economy Wed Apr 17 4 30 am ET Bank of England sat on the sidelines at its April meeting and has made it clear in recent months that policy makers are not in a hurry to do more easing However the GBP could see pressures rising if the minutes reveal that more Monetary Policy Committee members including the Governor Mervyn King voted for an increase of the Asset Purchase Program from 375 billion to 400 billion pounds and if the option of additional rate cuts was once again placed on the table 7 CAD Bank of Canada Interest Rate Announcement Wed Apr 17 9 00 am ET With the U S and China the world s two largest economies starting to show signs of a slowdown the Bank of Canada will not be in a position to make any changes to its existing monetary policy and will more than likely leave the benchmark rate at the current 1 0 level Compared with the rest of the major central banks the Bank of Canada still remains as the most likely candidate to tighten monetary policy However with the world in the midst of a currency war as competitive currency devaluation heats up the decision to call the end of the accommodative monetary policy would probably be pushed further into 2014 2015 8 JPY Japan Trade Balance an important gauge of economic activity measuring the difference between imports and exports Wed Apr 17 7 50 pm ET Despite of the yen s weakness the consensus forecasts point to another month of trade deficit by 494 billion yen in March from a deficit of 777 billion yen in February Signs that the Japanese economy is not improving will keep the yen under pressure on expectations that the government and the Bank of Japan could step up their efforts to devalue the currency and to spur export growth 9 USD U S Jobless Claims an important gauge of labor market conditions measuring claims for unemployment benefits Thurs Apr 19 8 30 am ET Recovering after the unexpected spike the U S jobless claims are forecast to remain in a range with a reading of 447K close to last week s 446K If the forecast is accurate the spike to 388K could be dismissed as a one off event On the other hand another surprising increase could trigger concerns that a new trend of rising claims for unemployment benefits could be in its early stages of development 10 JPY G20 Meeting Thurs Apr 18 and Fri Apr 19 two day event Finance ministers and central bankers from the 20 most developed industrialized nations in the world will gather as traders pay close attention to any statements or agreements that could be made during the G20 meeting on the issues of currency wars and competitive currency devaluation The G20 did not directly criticize Japan at the last meeting However with the yen depreciating rapidly due to the unprecedented measures taken by the Bank of Japan it would be interesting to see if the efforts of Japanese officials to weaken their currency will be criticized by their G20 colleagues this time around The JPY negative trend is still intact but we could see some unwinding of short yen positions ahead of the meeting |
WFC | 5 Irrefutable Signs That Real Estate is Still In Recovery | In case you haven t noticed I ve been on a bit of a data doesn t lie kick lately Yesterday I employed over two decades worth of numbers to debunk the negative implications regarding a plunge in bullish sentiment On Friday I used stats to put the sudden spike in Japanese government bond yields into perspective In case you missed it there s And of course I also recently undeniable numerical proof that stocks are not overdue for a pullback Today I m staying on my data kick and setting my sights on real estate Recall in April 2012 I shared 11 irrefutable signs that Let s see what the data tells us this year Nothing to Fear There s no denying that homebuilding stocks have been on a tear lately Heck the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction Fund is up 62 in the last year compared to about 15 for the S P 500 Index Such an impressive run up is making even faithful Wall Street Daily readers It s tough to blame them considering that there are plenty of stats flying around to embolden such fears Like the fact that searches for home values and real estate listings in the last year are up 158 and 256 respectively according to Yahoo But come on people Let s not put our faith or worse our investment dollars in consumer internet search habits Instead stick to the hard data coming out of the real estate market itself When we do it s clear that we re nowhere near bubble territory Don t believe me Then chew on these five stats Real Estate Recovery Stat 1 Timmmmmmber Don t look now but framing lumber prices just hit an eight year high What gives It s just simple supply and demand That is supply is down and demand is up If the housing recovery were nothing more than smoke and mirrors lumber prices wouldn t be jumping Oh and foreign suppliers wouldn t be ramping up production to meet higher demand for lumber either as industry researcher Wood Resources International LLC reports Real Estate Recovery Stat 2 Keep Raising the Roof Even though housing starts have rebounded swiftly from a low of roughly 500 000 per year to a tad less than one million now we re still far from the peak Back in early 2006 housing starts were running at an annual rate of over 2 2 million Even more telling is the fact that we re far from the long term average Over the last 50 years housing starts averaged about 1 46 million So the market can clearly handle much more construction activity Especially when we take into consideration all the new buyers out there Real Estate Recovery Stat 3 If You Build it They Will Buy It Roughly one million new households will be formed this year And those new people will need houses to live in By 2017 a total of six million new households will need a home according to JP Morgan s estimates And they can t simply buy existing single family homes because well there aren t enough The total number of single family homes condos townhomes and co ops for sale in the United States shrank 15 22 over the last year according to the latest data from Realtor com We re not just talking about a few markets skewing the data either Inventories are down in 134 of the 146 markets that Realtor com tracks Simply put build it and they will buy it Homebuilders know it too Granted the latest headline reading of homebuilder confidence fell to 42 in April as measured by the National Association of Home Builders Wells Fargo Housing Market Index But the component that gauges sales expectations for the next six months hit its highest level since February of 2007 Real Estate Recovery Stat 4 More Affordable Than Ever The latest monthly Housing Affordability Index reading from The National Association of Realtors NAR reveals that housing is still more affordable than ever In February the Index checked in at 206 2 making it the third consecutive month above 200 Essentially this means that the typical American household earning the median income of 62 254 would actually have 206 2 of the standard qualifying income to purchase a median priced single family home with a 20 down payment and a 30 year fixed rate mortgage Or as Dr Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute says Home ownership today is more affordable than almost any time in history and is the bargain of the century Now the classic sign of a bubble is when prices get out of reach And that s obviously not the case here Real Estate Recovery Stat 5 Mortgage Lending on the Mend Bad lending practices ultimately doomed the real estate market last time around So what s going on at banks now Nothing alarming For one thing they re working through the bad loans as mortgage delinquencies keep dropping According to the latest Mortgage Monitor Report from LPS 6 8 of mortgages were delinquent in February compared to 7 28 last year The percentage of mortgages in the foreclosure process is down over the last year too from 4 2 to 3 38 More importantly banks are making sure history doesn t repeat itself Case in point Since 2007 there s been a 90 drop in mortgage originations for borrowers with subprime credit scores 620 to 680 since 2007 according to Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke In other words banks are requiring much more than a pulse to get a mortgage nowadays What a novel concept Bottom line The data doesn t lie The real estate recovery is legit and here to stay Either invest accordingly or miss out |
WFC | Euro Trading Tad Higher This Morning | EUR USD title EUR USD width 2306 height 1591 For the 24 hours to 23 00 GMT EUR declined 0 33 against the USD and closed at 1 3053 as weak US economic data dented investor sentiment In the US the Empire State manufacturing index dropped to a reading of 3 05 in April while the NAHB Wells Fargo housing market index slipped to a reading of 42 0 in April its lowest level in six months In the Euro zone trade surplus the widened to a seasonally adjusted 12 0 billion in February from a revised 8 7 billion surplus in January In the Asian session at GMT0300 the pair is trading at 1 3064 with the EUR trading marginally higher from yesterday s close The pair is expected to find support at 1 3021 and a fall through could take it to the next support level of 1 2979 The pair is expected to find its first resistance at 1 3107 and a rise through could take it to the next resistance level of 1 3151 Later in the day Euro zone s consumer price index and the ZEW Survey economic sentiment are forecast to record a rise in March and April respectively However the ECB President Mario Draghi s speech later today would be deciphered about his plans to address the Euro zone debt crisis problems and is expected to prove decisive for the direction of the Euro against most of its peers The pair is also expected to take further cues from the outcome of the CPI housing and industrial production data set to be release in the US later today |
CMCSA | The Trump backlash Latino consumers wield new clout | By Herbert Lash and Nandita Bose NEW YORK CHICAGO Reuters When Donald Trump described Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug smugglers last month Latinos took to social media to express their outrage and urge businesses to sever ties with the billionaire presidential candidate In short order more than 10 organizations canceled their deals with Trump in what Latino activists are calling an unprecedented recognition of their economic clout Latino spending power will hit 1 5 trillion this year up 50 percent from 2010 according to the Nielsen Co which analyzes consumer spending trends At an average age of 27 the Hispanic population is a decade younger than the U S average and just entering the prime of its earning power market researchers said Latino millennials have purchasing power and they re not going to tolerate Trump s comments said Luis Fitch a Mexican American co founder of UNO Branding a marketing consultancy in Minneapolis Corporations understand the numbers they don t want to risk this Hispanics under 30 were the single largest group behind a high profile Dump Trump petition to Macy s Inc which got more than 730 000 signatures according to Angelo Carusone organizer of the petition by liberal activists Moveon org Carusone said he was in close contact with Macy s for days before the department store chain said in a July 1 statement that it would phase out Trump s menswear collection because it had no tolerance for discrimination Continuing with a brand association that alienates a rising customer base and makes them think negatively about the company just doesn t make good business sense said a Macy s official who spoke on condition of anonymity You just cannot ignore the buying power the community has and no retailer in their right mind would want to turn them away Trump has stuck to his stance that many illegal immigrants coming across the Mexican border are criminals but said that some of his criticism has been distorted Many fabulous people come in from Mexico and our country is better for it Trump said on Monday SOCIAL MEDIA BOOM The backlash on social media was initially slow On June 22 Univision s lead anchor Jorge Ramos challenged Trump to run his businesses without Mexican labor A day without Mexicans would stop the Trump empire Ramos wrote in an article published on Univision s website and his own blog That same day Adriana Almanza a 28 year old admissions counsellor at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids Michigan posted a letter on Facebook NASDAQ FB addressed to Trump about her immigrant father Raul She said her father towers over Trump and represents the best of Mexico humble and hard working In two days Almanza s letter had been shared more than 88 000 times The buzz on social media increased as celebrities jumped in including Colombian singer J Balvin There is much hate and ignorance in your heart wrote Ricky Martin in Spanish using the latinosunidos or Latinos united Twitter NYSE TWTR hashtag More than 11 000 tweets and retweets with that tag were sent in the past month More tweets flooded in under the yourefired and other hashtags many from non Latinos On June 25 Spanish language broadcaster Univision said it would not broadcast the Miss USA pageant and would cut ties to the Miss Universe Organization a joint venture between Trump and Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA Corp s NBC Universal In the following days and weeks NBC Universal NASCAR ESPN mattress maker Serta clothing maker PVH Corp NYSE PVH hair products manufacturer Farouk Systems perfume maker Parlux Fragrances the Professional Golfers Association and several restaurants and chefs all ended deals Trump ECONOMIC MUSCLES A decade ago Latinos flexed their political muscles with nationwide demonstrations over immigration reform This is the first time corporations have responded broadly to Latino pressure said Jorge Chapa a professor of Latino Studies and government affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign What I think is unique about the response to Trump was the fact that major corporates also took action Chapa said Trump s general counsel Alan Garten said his boss s comments had been taken out of context by the media To say Trump is anti Mexico or anti the Mexican people would be completely inaccurate he said Garten said Trump s political campaign is thriving pointing to recent polling that shows him in second place in the race to be the Republican Party s nominee for the 2016 election Garten also pointed out that Univision and NBC Universal had not formally pulled Trump s Miss USA pageant while ESPN s decision to pull a golf tournament from a Trump course was a one off event with no significant financial impact Still Trump argued in a 500 million lawsuit against Univision that with no Spanish language broadcast his pageants will likely lose tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from advertising promotions sponsorship licensing and merchandising Univision has called Trump s complaint factually false and legally ridiculous A new five year contract for exclusive Spanish language broadcast rights signed in January was worth 13 5 million to Trump according to the suit filed last month
The potential fallout from Univision s brazen decision to simply walk away from its contractual obligations is catastrophic the lawsuit said |
CMCSA | Comcast to offer streaming services for 15 a month | Reuters Cable company Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA said it is beta testing a new cable streaming service called Stream which will broadcast live TV from HBO and about a dozen other networks for 15 per month
Launching with Boston followed by Chicago and Seattle Stream would let Comcast s Xfinity Internet customers stream live TV over phones tablets and laptops
The service which will be available everywhere in the United States by early 2016 also comes with on demand movies and recording features Comcast said |
CMCSA | Presidential candidate Trump boasts of 10 billion net worth | By Alistair Bell and Sandra Maler WASHINGTON Reuters U S Republican presidential candidate and real estate magnate Donald Trump said on Wednesday his net worth has risen to more than 10 billion and boasted that campaign finance watchdogs struggle to deal with someone as rich as he is The figure which Trump said he gave to the Federal Election Commission in a financial declaration was more than the nearly 9 billion he cited only last month when he announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2016 Trump has taken a hit for statements he has made since announcing his candidacy Major companies cut ties to him over comments he made describing Mexican immigrants as rapists He has nevertheless surged in the polls In a poll by Suffolk University USA TODAY released on Tuesday Trump took the top spot in the Republican field Trump s net worth has been a source of speculation and contention for years The businessman who has never held elected office once sued an author whose book gave an estimate of the real estate developer s wealth much lower than Trump s own Still he said in the statement the FEC process was insufficient to capture the extent of his money This report was not designed for a man of Mr Trump s massive wealth the statement said For example to declare ownership of a building worth 1 5 billion he would have had to check a box labeled 50 million or more according to the statement The FEC said it could not confirm or deny whether Trump had filed his disclosure Mr Trump s net worth has increased since the more than one year old financial statement produced at his presidential announcement his statement read Forbes magazine which closely tracks his finances says Trump has hugely exaggerated his net worth putting the figure on Wednesday at 4 billion After Trump s remarks on Mexican immigrants Univision UVN UL canceled its broadcast the Miss USA pageant co owned by him And the Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA Corp owned NBC television network Macy s Inc department store chain mattress maker Serta and the NASCAR stock car racing organization cut ties with him Trump said he earned 362 million in 2014 During 14 seasons of the TV show The Apprentice Trump was paid 213 million the statement said He also said when he launched his run that he is using my own money to finance his campaign |
CMCSA | U S judge says Internet streaming service should be treated like cable | By Andrew Chung NEW YORK Reuters A U S judge ruled on Thursday that online television service FilmOn X LLC should be treated like a traditional cable system in order to transmit the programs of the nation s broadcasters over the Internet The ruling coming as consumer TV watching habits are increasingly migrating to the Internet is the first to first to view a streaming service like a cable provider and could have major implications for broadcasters if it is upheld by higher courts Broadcasters have been aggressively litigating against such services contending they violate their copyrights and threaten their ability to generate advertising and control subscription fees U S District Judge George Wu in Los Angeles said in his ruling that FilmOn X is entitled to a compulsory license under the Copyright Act to retransmit the broadcasters programs if it meets the law s requirements Acknowledging the major commercial consequences of his decision Wu said he would allow an immediate appeal to the 9th U S Circuit Court of Appeals He also left in place an injunction against FilmOn X s operations that the broadcasters had won in 2012 so FilmOn will still not able to stream their content pending the appeal The broadcasters have been trying to keep their foot on the throat of innovation said FilmOn X s lawyer Ryan Baker in an interview The court s decision today is a win for technology and for the American public In a statement Fox Networks said the opinion contravenes all legal precedent and vowed to appeal The dispute stems from two lawsuits that Fox Walt Disney Co s ABC network CBS Corp NYSE CBS Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA Corp s NBCUniversal and several others filed against FilmOn X in 2012 The networks successfully shut down Aereo a more prominent competitor to FilmOn X when the U S Supreme Court in June 2014 said that company violated the broadcasters copyrights in retransmitting their programs to subscribers devices via the Internet Aereo then tried to argue in a Manhattan federal court it should be seen as analogous to cable eligible for a compulsory license The judge in that case disagreed The company backed by Barry Diller s IAC InterActiveCorp has since gone bankrupt Both Aereo and FilmOn X founded by Internet entrepreneur Alki David use similar technology that allows viewers to watch network television captured via remote antennas and sent over the Internet
The case is Fox Television Stations Inc v FilmOn X LLC in the U S District Court for the Central District of California No 12 cv 6921 |
CMCSA | Hulu may launch ad free service for about 12 14 a month WSJ | Reuters Video streaming service provider Hulu is exploring plans to add an advertisement free option to its service for a monthly subscription of about 12 14 the Wall Street Journal reported Codenamed NOAH which expands to No Ads Hulu the ad free service may be launched as early as this fall the Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter However Hulu s owners still believe in the ad supported version of the service and aim to use data to make advertising more relevant to viewers the newspaper said Hulu is a joint venture owned by Comcast NASDAQ CMCSA Corp s NBCUniversal 21st Century Fox Inc s Fox Broadcasting and Walt Disney Co s ABC Representatives of Hulu Walt Disney Comcast and 21st Century Fox could not be reached for comment outside regular business hours |
WFC | Wells Fargo to pay 4 1 million to settle charges of illegal student loan practices | By Suzanne Barlyn Reuters A Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co unit will pay 4 1 million to settle allegations that it engaged in illegal private student loan servicing practices that unfairly penalized certain borrowers the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau CFPB said on Monday The bureau said it identified breakdowns throughout Wells Fargo s servicing process including failing to provide important payment information to consumers charging illegal fees and failing to update inaccurate credit report information Wells neither admitted nor denied the charges the bureau said The settlement resolves three areas of concern related to procedures that were retired or improved many years ago and addresses the impact to a small number of customers a Wells Fargo spokesman said The procedures at issue were either retired or corrected between 2011 and 2013 The 4 1 million sum includes a 3 6 million penalty to the bureau and a 410 000 fund for borrowers Last year the CFPB found that more than 8 million U S borrowers are in default on more than 110 billion in student loans Breakdowns in student loan servicing may be driving the problem the bureau said Student loans make up the second largest U S consumer debt market with roughly 1 3 trillion owed by borrowers who took out federal and private loans the bureau said Loans from private lenders are a small fraction of that amount totaling about 100 billion owed But they are often used by borrowers with high debt levels who also have federal loans the CFPB said The bureau said the bank processed payments in a way that made consumers pay more fees If a borrower s payment was not enough to cover the total amount due for all loans in an account the bank divided that payment among the loans in a way that maximized late fees rather than satisfying payments for some of the loans the bureau said
Wells Fargo s Sioux Falls South Dakota based education finance unit services about 1 3 million U S consumers the CFPB said |
WFC | U S existing home sales decline prices still strong | By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON Reuters U S home resales fell more than expected in July after four straight months of strong gains as a lack of inventory limited choice for buyers but further price rises suggested the housing market remained on solid ground The slump in sales reported by the National Association of Realtors on Wednesday is likely to be temporary given that a tightening labor market is steadily pushing up wages and mortgage rates are near historically low levels Existing home sales declined 3 2 percent to an annual rate of 5 39 million units last month the NAR said It blamed the drop in sales on the dearth of properties on the market which lifted the median house price 5 3 percent from a year ago Without a large choice it is hard for people looking for homes to find something they want and that seems to be the problem facing the housing market said Joel Naroff chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland Pennsylvania Economists had forecast sales slipping 0 4 percent to a 5 51 million unit pace in July Home resales were down 1 6 percent from a year ago A separate report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency showed house prices rose 1 2 percent in the second quarter They were up 5 6 percent from the second quarter of 2015 U S financial markets were little moved by the data with investors looking ahead to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen s speech on Friday at a global central bankers conference in Jackson Hole Wyoming The broader PHLX housing index HGX which includes builders building products and mortgage companies was down 0 50 percent The Fed raised interest rates at the end of last year for the first time in nearly a decade but has held them steady this year amid concerns over persistently low inflation Most economists expect another rate hike in December MILLENNIALS IMPACT ON HOUSING Economists believe that demand for housing will be driven by the so called millennials a demographic group that has seen an improvement in job prospects since the end of the 2007 2009 recession Unemployment among Americans in the 25 34 age bracket has plummeted since January 2015 with the share of those holding a job at the highest level since September 2008 First time home buyers accounted for 32 percent of existing home transactions in July up from 28 percent a year ago the NAR said We have been touting the upside for housing this year and the belief it will carry the economy along with consumption said Steve Blitz chief economist at M Science in New York Our basic upside view on housing is rooted in a sufficient recovery of 25 to 34 year olds with a job the length of time they have been gainfully employed and the cheap cost of a mortgage The government reported on Tuesday that new home sales vaulted to a nine year high in July Existing home sales fell in the Northeast the South and the Midwest in July but rose 2 5 percent in the West Higher house prices however do not appear to be enticing homeowners to put their properties on the market Economists speculate that the firming labor market has reduced the desire to move for employment reasons reducing the number of potential sellers of homes The stock of homes for sale inched up 0 9 percent to 2 13 million last month but supply was down 5 8 percent from a year ago At July s sales pace it would take 4 7 months to clear the stock of houses on the market up from 4 5 months in June A six month supply is viewed as a healthy balance Underscoring the inventory tightness houses typically stayed on the market for 36 days in July down from 42 days a year ago Supply is also being squeezed as the flow of foreclosed properties dries up The share of distressed property sales dropped to 5 percent in July the smallest share since October 2008 from 6 percent in June The NAR said rising prices were causing problems with appraisals leading to delays in closing contracts
The run up in home prices has also made it difficult for appraisers to evaluate properties said Anika Khan a senior economist at Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Securities in New York With many homes selling at or above asking prices homes are often not appraising at high enough values to qualify for a mortgage which has led to delays in closings |
WFC | Wells Fargo to pay homeowners 3 45 million over mailing error | By Suzanne Barlyn Reuters A Wells Fargo NYSE WFC Co mortgage unit will pay 3 45 million to some customers because of a processing error that delayed the mailing of letters to almost 8 000 homeowners in bankruptcy and shortened their notice period about changes to monthly mortgage payment amounts according to a court document The unit called Wells Fargo Bank NA agreed on the sum in a pact with the Department of Justice s U S Trustee Program which oversees the country s bankruptcy system according to a letter from the bank filed in U S Bankruptcy Court in Greenbelt Maryland Wells Fargo agreed to fix the mailing error and give credits and refunds worth 3 45 million to affected homeowners Inquiries by an independent compliance monitor hired by the bank as part of an 81 6 million settlement with the Justice Department last year uncovered the problem said Cliff White director of the U S Trustee Program s executive office in a statement L1N13025Y In that agreement last year Wells Fargo settled claims that it denied thousands of homeowners a chance to challenge mortgage payment increases imposed during their bankruptcy proceedings The latest 3 45 million deal reached with Wells Fargo supplements that settlement the U S Trustee Program said The bank also has agreed to expanded compliance monitoring
A Wells Fargo spokesman said it self reported the mailing delay to the U S Trustee Program upon learning of the problem and that it is providing timely delivery of documents |
CMCSA | Comcast founder cable industry leader Ralph Roberts dies at 95 | By Malathi Nayak and Anya George Tharakan Reuters Comcast Corp NASDAQ CMCSA founder and prominent cable industry executive Ralph Roberts died on Thursday at the age of 95 the company said Roberts who set up Comcast after he bought a small cable television operator in Tupelo Mississippi in 1963 died of natural causes in Philadelphia Comcast said in a statement From selling ads to golf clubs and men s accessories in his early years Roberts ambitiously ventured into America s fledgling cable industry He led Comcast from its humble beginnings to a 150 billion media conglomerate Roberts who was chairman emeritus of Comcast s board had spent more than five decades at the company Ralph was a born entrepreneur a visionary businessman a philanthropist and a wonderful human being the company said in a statement After about a decade of building out cable networks and signing up subscribers Comcast went public on the Nasdaq under Roberts helm in 1972 A sharply dressed businessman who often donned tailored suits and bow ties Roberts was a dogged deal maker In 1986 he led the acquisition of a 26 percent stake in Group W Cable expanding its customer base to more than a million The purchase of AT T Broadband the cable service of telephone giant AT T Inc NYSE T for 30 billion in 2001 catapulted Comcast into the No 1 U S cable TV operator with more than 21 million subscribers His son Brian Roberts took on the top post at Comcast in 2002 and has since been its CEO The Roberts family forayed into the media business by acquiring NBC Universal that includes broadcast cable movie studio and theme park businesses He has left a lasting legacy on the communications landscape of America U S Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement After a slew of acquisitions over the years Comcast s plan to buy its rival Time Warner Cable NYSE TWC was upset by regulatory opposition in April He exemplified the value of working hard and treating others with kindness and respect TWC CEO Rob Marcus said in a statement His influence has extended far beyond Comcast and cable
Roberts is survived by Suzanne Roberts his wife of more than 70 years four children and eight grandchildren |
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