| UK lenders steer away from 100% mortgages
Mortgage lenders are withdrawing from offering 100 per cent home loans over fears that such products will now attract a flood of high-risk borrowers. Those lenders still offering 100 per cent deals are now charging interest rates of 8 per cent or more. In recent months, 10 lenders have stopped offering to advance the full value of a property, reducing the availability of these mortgages by almost one third compared with a year ago. But while brokers blame concerns over liquidity and a weakening housing market, some lenders admit they do not want to bear the cost of processing – and rejecting – applications from bad credit risks. Some providers fear as competitors withdraw from the market, they will face a sharp increase in applications. Norwich and Peterborough has now reduced its maximum loan-to-value from 100 per cent to 90 per cent.
Lawsuit by city targets lender
District Court, alleges that California-based Wells Fargo Bank sold higher-interest subprime mortgages to blacks more frequently than to whites and that the practice, known as reverse redlining, violates federal housing law.
Lenders are increasingly coming under legal attack from borrowers and investors stung by the subprime mortgage crisis, but Baltimore's lawsuit could be the first in the nation in which a city is attempting to recapture costs associated with foreclosed homes that wind up vacant.
.
New Taliban chief entering limelight
The move is an attempt to present a united front against the Pakistani army, which has been fighting insurgents along the border with Afghanistan. It is also the latest sign of the rise of Mehsud, considered the deadliest of the Taliban mullahs or clerics in northwest Pakistan. Mehsud is based in the rugged, heavily treed mountains of South Waziristan, one of Pakistan's so-called tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan, where Western intelligence says al-Qaida is regrouping. His organization has claimed responsibility, often backed up by videos, for killing and kidnapping hundreds of soldiers, beheading women and burning schools that teach girls anything other than religion. He also claims he has a steady supply of suicide bombers and strong ties to al-Qaida. "Al-Qaida has succeeded in building a base in the last two or three years mostly with help from Mehsud," said Ahmed Zaidan, a reporter for Al-Jazeera Television in Qatar who interviewed Mehsud three weeks ago.
Latvia's real estate star falls
With real estate prices having risen 500 percent since 2002, Latvia has long been an investment hot-spot where the sector has outstripped its counterparts in EU member states. But the Baltic state's property firms are getting gloomy as a government anti-inflation drive bites and jitters spill over from the United States' home loan crisis. "Activities in the market have slowed down considerably. People are waiting, though nobody can really predict what will happen in the future. The situation is bleak," said Aigars Smits, head of the Arco Real Estate company. Real estate prices began dipping in Latvia in May, after the government introduced a package of measures to fight rampant inflation, including stricter rules on issuing mortgages. Latvian authorities say that the number of real estate transactions has now shrunk to the level of 2001, before the boom kicked in.
Nuclear Power Gets Boost from Candidates
Though they have voted for legislation that includes loan guarantees for the nuclear industry, both say that federal subsidies have been tilted for too long toward fossil fuels and nuclear power and should focus on renewable energy sources like solar and wind. Yet both say that new nuclear power cannot be ruled out. At a South Carolina rally, Clinton said: "I think nuclear power has to be part of our energy solution. . . . I don't have any preconceived opposition; I just want to be sure that we do it right, as carefully as we can." Obama, whose home state has 11 nuclear power plants, the biggest concentration in the country, said while campaigning in New Hampshire: "I don't think we can take nuclear power off the table." If the nation can resolve the waste and safety issues, he said, "then we should pursue it, and if we can't, we should not." The three top Democratic candidates all oppose creating a repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas in the early-caucus state of Nevada.
Today is Saturday, Jan. 19, the 19th day of 2008. There are 347 days ...
Meanwhile the Congressional Budget Office is predicting double digit unemployment through 1983 and budget deficits that could swell to $300 billion in 1987 without new taxes and spending cuts. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approves a rate increase of 10.4 percent for the Ohio Water Service Co., significantly less than what the company had asked. Three creditors, including a Lowellville trucking company, petition U.S. Bankruptcy Court to declare the defunct Youngstown Steel Corp. bankrupt. The action has stopped the federal government's movement to sell Youngstown Steel's spike mill and other property at CASTLO Industrial Park. January 19, 1968: Mahoning County's first-half 1967 real estate tax collection will have an all-time high charge of $14.9 million, and increase of $757,421 over a year earlier.
Oil giants' barrels gushing over with profit
But the figures still left one trader somewhat underwhelmed: "As much as the figures are good, they're not amazing." Still, with Royal Dutch Shell (RDS), ExxonMobile and ConocoPhillips all due to announce fat profits before the end of the week, the creaking door-frame could be reduced to matchwood by Friday night. The figures relating to oil industry profits are staggering. According to a report earlier this year from Merrill Lynch, the world's 70 biggest oil groups are on course to report a total net income of almost £132.5bn for 2005 - which, if looked at on a profit-per second basis, works out at just under £7300, or about one-third of the UK average annual wage. To put another perspective on that, the total is almost as much as the entire Polish economy, according to Bloomberg. Tomorrow, RDS is expected to detail interim profits of about £3.1bn, while brokers at Credit Suisse First Boston see BP's main rival for the oil industry crown (based on revenues), ExxonMobile, weighing in with a hefty rise in half-year earnings to £4.6bn.
Dow Jones industrial average closes down 128.11 points
The rest of the comeback, for the economy as well as the stock market, may depend on a turnaround in the battered housing market and renewed confidence among U.S. consumers.The Dow Jones industrial average, down 465 points shortly after trading began, bounced around throughout the session before closing with a milder drop of 128.11, or 1.06 percent, at 11,971.19, according to preliminary calculations.U.S. stocks began the day following the lead of markets abroad that had plummeted for two straight days, and also extended their own steep losses from last week. Fears of a U.S. recession -- one that would spread to other economies -- had investors fleeing stocks worldwide.The Fed, in a step anticipated by many traders, moved before the opening of trading, cutting its benchmark federal funds rate by 0.75 percentage point to 3.50 percent and the discount rate, the interest the Fed charges banks directly, to 4 percent.
|
