Sunday, January 25, 2015

Monday January 26 Housing and Economic stories


Frontline (FRO) Stock Plunges Today After CNBC Comments - (finance.yahoo.com) Shares of the world's largest oil tanker shipping company Frontline (FRO) plunged 11.45% to $4.10 in morning trading Tuesday after CNBC's Karen Finerman commented on the stock on Fast Money on Monday. Finerman suggested investors take profits in the stock by selling out of the money call options. Her bullish comments on the stock last week helped send the stock higher. The stock surged more than 18% Monday after a Bloomberg report late last week that plunging oil prices could stimulate demand for oil tankers to store cargoes. Consulting firm JBC Energy GmbH speculated last week that oil companies could store up to 60 million barrels of oil on tankers in the next few months. Large crude carriers will earn an average of $35,000 a day in 2015, according to data calculated by Bloomberg. Oil prices continued to plunge on Tuesday. WTI crude was down 1.24% to $45.50 at 10:12 a.m., while 2.85% to $46.08, according to CNBC. More than 4.4 million shares had changed hands as of 10:13 a.m., compared to the daily average volume of 2,219,660.

Mortgage Servicer Ocwen Financial Is Crashing - (finance.yahoo.com) Shares of mortgage servicing company Ocwen are crashing on Tuesday after a report in The Los Angeles Times said California is looking to suspend the company's mortgage license in the state. In afternoon trade on Tuesday, Ocwen shares were down as much as 38% bringing the stock's losses over the last year to about 85% in what has been a complete disaster of a year for the company.  Here's the LA Times on Tuesday: California's action accuses Ocwen of defying requests for information by the California Department of Business Oversight, which licenses nonbank mortgage lenders and providers of collection and foreclosure services. Ocwen, which specializes in handling troubled home loans, is the largest mortgage servicer not affiliated with a bank and the nation's fourth-largest servicer overall. Losing a California license would mean that Ocwen, based in Atlanta, would have to sell its rights to handle bill collection and foreclosures in the state, said Tom Dresslar, spokesman for the state agency. The Times' report added that Ocwen counts California as its largest source of business.

GoPro Plunges After Apple Gains Remote Camera Patent - (www.bloomberg.com) GoPro Inc. (GPRO) shares plummeted 12 percent, their steepest decline since August, after Apple Inc. (AAPL) was granted a patent for a remote-control camera system. The stock dropped to $49.87 at the close in New York. The plunge followed Apple gaining a patent today from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a system that lets consumers control a digital camera remotely. Investors are concerned that the patent will let Apple, the world’s largest company by market valuation, make products that are similar to what GoPro offers, said Charlie Anderson, an analyst at Dougherty & Co. Apple sold more than 270 million units of its various products in fiscal 2014, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

KB Home warns on margins, homebuilder shares fall  - (finance.yahoo.com) KB Home, the No. 5 U.S. homebuilder, said it expected a "significant" drop in gross margins in the quarter ending Feb. 28, sending down its shares along with those of its competitors. The company, which reported higher-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue as it sold more homes at higher prices, said margins in the first quarter would be squeezed by higher costs for labor and materials and increased sales incentives. "We do not expect to reach our housing gross profit margin goal of 20 percent in 2015," Chief Executive Jeff Mezger said on a conference call. The company's adjusted gross housing profit margin was 18.7 percent in 2014, up from 18.4 percent in 2013. Adjusted margin for the fourth quarter fell to 18.7 percent from 19.8 percent year earlier.

Despite 'Gas Tax Cut', Airlines See Tumbling Traffic, Outsource US Jobs - (www.zerohedge.com)  This wasn't how it was supposed to be? Collapsing crude oil prices - according to the mainstream (Fed-spoon-fed) narrative means lower costs for business and 'massive' tax cuts for consumers enabling disposable income to surge. But, American Airlines just announced a 3.4 percentage point plunge in its load factor (ability to fill its planes) in December and while Southwest saw traffic rise, its load factor also fell as passenger revenue per seat tumbled 4-5%. So no extra spending... and now United reports it is looking to outsource 2,000 jobs in a cost-cutting effort (which seems odd given the total collapse of the fuel cost overhead?). Oh well, just keep repeating - crashing oil prices are unambiguously good.




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