Monthly Archives: August 2011
Foreclosures made up 31% of 2Q home sales
Comments »WASHINGTON (AP) — Foreclosures made up roughly one-third of all home sales this spring. While that’s a smaller share of sales from the previous quarter, it’s six times the percentage of foreclosures in a healthy housing market.
Foreclosure sales, which include homes purchased after they received a notice of default or that were repossessed by lenders, accounted for 31 percent of the market in the April-June quarter, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.
The share of the market would likely have been larger this spring if not for a state and federal investigation into faulty paperwork by banks and servicers. The probe has led many banks to delay foreclosure sales. Once that is complete, foreclosures will likely surge later this year.
As a slice of all home purchases, foreclosure sales peak two years ago at 37.4 percent. In the second quarter, they declined from 36 percent in the January-March period.
In all, 265,087 homes in some stage of foreclosure or owned by banks were sold in the second quarter, down 11 percent from the same period a year ago. Sales of all other types of homes also declined, according to RealtyTrac’s figures, which differ from other home-sales estimates.
Bank-owned homes, which are sold after being repossessed, accounted for nearly 19 percent of all sales. That’s unchanged from the previous quarter.
Flash: Buffett to Invest $5 Billion in BAC
Upgrades and Downgrades This Morning
Upgrades
KMT – Kennametal assumed with Outperform at Credit Suisse
RA – RailAmerica upgraded to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus
PTI – Patni Computer Sys downgraded to Sell from Neutral at UBS
TTC – Toro upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Janney
OCN – Ocwen Fincl assumed with Overweight at Piper Jaffray
FFIV – F5 Networks upgraded to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus
CAE – CAE upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS
RCKB – Rockville Financial initiated with a Buy at Stifel Nicolaus
WETF – WisdomTree initiated with Overweight at Piper Jaffray
SAY – SAP AG initiated with Buy at RBS
AEO – American Eagle upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Lazard Capital Markets
PVX – Provident Energy Trust upgraded to Buy from Hold at TD Newcrest
Downgrades
MET – MetLife target lowered to $46 from $54 at Argus
ECA – EnCana downgraded to Hold at The Benchmark Company
HPQ – Hewlett-Packard downgraded to Sector Perform
AMAT – Applied Materials target lowered to $13 at Needham
ORCL – Oracle target lowered to $36 at Macquarie
MU – Micron target lowered to $9 from $12.50 at Wedbush
UTHR – United Therapeutics target lowered to $53 from $77 at Oppenheimer
VE – Veolia Environnement downgraded to Neutral at Credit Suisse
GGG – Graco downgraded to Hold from Buy at BB&T
Comments »Gapping Up and Down This Morning
Gapping up
OCNF +7.3%, TIVO +7.1%, BCS +5.6%, PSS +32.3%, RGS +3.6%, Z +2.6%, CLR +1.9%, MT +1.2%, PSTI +4.8%, BAC +3.3%, RBS +3%, GAME +7.4%, BBL +1.6%, BHP +1.3%, STEM +6.6%, SIG +11.6%, DEO +4.8%, ORIT +3.4%,PMI +9.1%, RDN +7.5%, MTG +2.4%, FFIV +2.9%, DB +2.1%, ING +1.8%, STD +0.9%, UBS +0.7%,
Gapping down
GMCR -3.6%, GES -3.3%, AMAT -3.2%, OXBT -26.4%, RUE -11%, SIGM -10.4%, BP -2%, RCL -1.6%, GTAT -1.4%, SMTC -4.9%, AAPL -4.6%, SDRL -4.6%,
In Play and On the Wires
Initial Claims: Prior 408k, Mkt Expects 400k, Actual 417k…Last Week Revised to 412k
Bernanke May Not Give the Markets What They Want
Greek 10 Year @ 18.54% & 2 Year Note at 45%+
European Markets Extend Gains; The Clam Has the Power
Should We Celebrate a Weaker Dollar ?
Aussie Dollar Continues to Fall While the Kiwi Dollar Pauses From Downside Action
EU Regulators are Contemplating the Continuation of the Short Sale Band
Irene Batters the Bahamas and Heads for North Carolina
Mucho damage in the islands. Let’s hope she hits a cold patch of water before arriving to the east coast…better yet dissipate into a tropical storm.
Comments »Oil Trades Higher and Gold Extends Yesterday’s Losses
NASA Discovery of Extraterrestrial DNA on Meteorites Confirms Billy Meier’s Information From 1988
NASA’s "new discovery" about the elements of life first being brought to Earth by incoming objects confirms what Swiss prophet Billy Meier first published, in 1988.
In fact, the news report virtually repeats what Meier had said about the universe wide phenomenon of life-seeding objects decades ago.
Thurday, July 7th, 1988, 5:19AM
Billy: “That is, thus, clear and also means that you’ve never spoken of microorganisms, which are present on virtually all planets and on certain large moons, as you let me see through your apparatuses. In part, these microorganisms exist on the surface materials of the planets and moons, while others find their habitats in the ice or under this in the under-ice seas and under-ice lakes, as you’ve designated the whole thing. And all of these microorganisms, according to your explanations, have developed in their masses on the relevant planets and moons themselves, although their origin lay elsewhere, namely with comets and wandering planets, which deposited parts or entireties of their microorganisms on the planets and moons, depending on whether these came into the tails of the cosmic wanderers or whether these or parts of these fell from them. As a rule, comets and meteors are carriers of microorganisms that, if they “inseminate” planets and moons, immensely multiply in conditions that are favorable for them and gradually change themselves and mutate or, in the course of their secretions, create new substances and new forms, which form new life in unions, etc. with other forms, from which higher life develops over the course of hundreds of thousands and millions of years, if the necessary conditions are given on the planets and moons, so particularly climate, temperature, and food. Thus, there is life that is only in the light and other life that can only live in total darkness, while others can only exist in intense heat or cold. Others can only exist in water, in gases, in soft or hard matter, while others can only live in external spheres, etc. And as it happens universe-wide with the “insemination” of the planets and moons by comets, wandering planets, and meteors, as well as by clouds of microorganisms, which drift through space, so it has also happened on our Earth. First through this was it possible that life could develop from the planet itself. So if it is said that the Earth created life from itself, then this is to be understood in the sense that first, it became “inseminated” by microorganisms from outer space, precisely through comets, wandering planets, meteors, and clouds of microorganisms, etc., which then multiplied on our planet when conditions that were life-favorable for them were created by this. Primarily included in these favorable conditions was volcanism, in which thermal microorganisms romped about, from whose effects, however, also climatic and atmospheric forms and layers, etc. developed, and after this developed lichens and mosses and later higher plants and after that the animal forms, and at last, humans were able to develop. Mainland life emerged here in the sandy shore layers of the seas and other waters, but this earthly original form of life first developed in the primeval waters, which still would have been undrinkable and deadly for humans and for actual animals. This process of the origin of life on Earth is likewise given throughout the whole Universe, so thus, there are micro-organic as well as low and higher and even high life forms elsewhere on other worlds – and with these also humans, as your existence probably proves sufficiently, and indeed, even against all the nonsensical assertions of know-it-alls and other lunatics, who believe that higher life or any life at all would only exist on our Earth. ”
Flash: Europe Ripping Higher on Open
European indices are up 1% across the board, led by banks. Credit Agricole shares are up 7%.
US futures are now green, higher by 3.
Comments »Asian Markets Higher Across the Board
| ^AORD | All Ordinaries | 4,272.60 1:28AM EDT |  36.90 (0.87%) |
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| ^SSEC | Shanghai Composite | 2,590.83 1:32AM EDT | 49.74 (1.96%) |
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| ^HSI | Hang Seng | 19,733.11 1:33AM EDT | 266.32 (1.37%) |
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| ^BSESN | BSE 30 | 16,223.98 1:38AM EDT |  61.00 (0.37%) |
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| ^JKSE | Jakarta Composite | 3,855.32 1:40AM EDT | 8.30 (0.22%) |
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| ^KLSE | KLSE Composite | 1,469.12 1:27AM EDT | 0.03 (0.00%) |
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| ^N225 | Nikkei 225 | 8,812.91 1:28AM EDT | 173.30 (2.01%) |
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| ^NZ50 | NZSE 50 | 3,301.58 1:00AM EDT | 14.05 (0.43%) |
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| ^STI | Straits Times | 2,754.78 1:27AM EDT | 34.88 (1.28%) |
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| ^KS11 | Seoul Composite | 1,770.73 1:28AM EDT | 15.95 (0.91%) |
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| ^TWII | Taiwan Weighted | 7,409.18 1:28AM EDT | 93.75 (1.25%) |
