18 minutes ago
Mortgage demand falls to 27-year low
Mortgage applications fell 2.9% last week to their lowest level since December 1996, according to the Mortgage Banker Association’s seasonally adjusted index.
Then, the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances fell from 7.31% to 7.21%. The number of home loan refinancing applications has fallen by 5% compared to the previous week and by 30% compared to the previous year.
—Diana Olick, Samantha Subin
An hour ago
Big Tech names are classified as “gatekeepers” under strict EU rules
Tech giants Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft have been named “gatekeepers” in the European Commission’s new Digital Markets Act. The term refers to large internet platforms that the EU believes limit access to services such as search and messaging.
The shares of all five companies fell slightly in the premarket.
—Fred Imbert, Ryan Browne
An hour ago
RBC warns that problems remain with growth trading
Despite a rebound in the AI industry in late summer, as summer unofficially ended, RBC warned of some issues the growing industry will face going forward.
“Growth valuations have corrected only slightly versus value and remain extremely elevated,” Lori Calvasina, head of U.S. strategy, wrote in a note Tuesday. “CFTC weekly data on asset managers’ positioning in Nasdaq 100 futures suggests that large-cap growth trading has become overvalued and positioning is starting to falter. Earnings sentiment (the rate of upward EPS revisions) continues to favor growth relative to value, but the gap is starting to narrow, suggesting that growth’s dominance on the earnings side is fading.”
—Fred Imbert, Michael Bloom
6 hours ago
Evergrande shares rise more than 54%, top gainer on Hang Seng
Shares of Chinese real estate developer Evergrande rose as much as 54.29% on Wednesday, leading gains on the Hang Seng Index.
The real estate sector was the biggest gainer on the HSI, but the overall index was still in negative territory, weighed down by healthcare and industrial stocks.
The move came after Country Garden, another real estate giant in China, made $22.5 million in bond coupon payments and avoided default.
Shares of Country Garden Holdings and Logan Group also rose 21.78% and 24.1%, respectively, while the Hang Seng Mainland Property Index gained about 4%.
9 hours ago
Japan will ‘not rule out options’ as yen weakens above 147 against US dollar: Portal
Japan’s deputy finance minister for international affairs, Masato Kanda, warned that the country would “not rule out any options if speculative moves against the yen continue,” Portal reported.
Kanda spoke to reporters after the yen fell to a 10-month low against the dollar, breaking through 147 on Wednesday to climb to 147.78.
“We will not rule out any options if speculative moves continue,” Kanda said, according to the Portal report. “Of course it is important that currency movements reflect fundamentals.”
9 hours ago
Australia’s economy grew 2.1% year-on-year in the second quarter
Australia’s gross domestic product grew 2.1% in the second quarter from a year earlier, more than 1.8% expected by economists polled by Portal.
However, the figure was below the 2.3% year-on-year growth recorded in the first quarter.
Quarter-on-quarter, GDP rose 0.4%, marking the seventh consecutive quarterly increase.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said exports and investment were the main contributors to GDP growth in the quarter, partially offset by changes in inventories.
—Lim Hui Jie
12 hours ago
The Russell 2000 and Dow Transports posted their worst day since late April on Tuesday
The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks slipped 2.1% on Tuesday after the Labor Day break, its worst one-day decline on April 25 (when it fell 2.4%) and its second Decline in three sessions. The Russell is more than 6% below its 52-week high and below its 50-day moving average.
The Dow Jones Transportation Average fell 2.19% on Tuesday, its worst day since April 26 (when it fell 3.56%) and also its second day of losses in three days. Transports closed below their 50-DMA for the first time since June 5th.
See grafic…
Russell 2000 Smallcaps in 2023.
—Scott Schnipper, Christopher Hayes
13 hours ago
See which stocks are seeing the biggest moves after hours
These are some of the stocks seeing the biggest moves after the close of trading:
- Zscaler – The cloud security stock fell 1% despite reporting a better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter report and providing strong guidance for the current quarter.
- GitLab – The technology platform rose 4% following a strong second-quarter report and current-quarter guidance.
- Gogo – Broadband shares rose 3.5% after the company announced approval of a stock repurchase program worth up to $50 million.
The full list can be found here.
—Alex Harring
13 hours ago
S&P 500 and Dow futures were little changed
Futures tied to the S&P 500 and Dow were little changed shortly after 6 p.m. ET. Meanwhile, Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.1%.
—Alex Harring