Retail
Meltdown Demolishes Mall Investors - (www.wolfstreet.com) The
closure of thousands of retail chain stores last year and this year, with many
more to come – from big anchor tenants such as Macy’s to smaller stores such as
Payless Shoes – and the bankruptcies and debt restructurings ricocheting through the
industry are
having an impact on retail malls. And mall investors – that may include your
retirement account – are getting crushed. The commercial real estate industry
has been claiming that these shuttered retail spaces are being converted into
restaurants or fitness centers or smaller shops or whatever. And zombie malls
are leasing out their parking lots to car dealers to store their excess new
vehicle inventory, and that everything is going to be fine. But investors in
publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trusts that were for years among the
stars in the S&P 500 are voting with their feet.
Just
One Week Later, Atlanta Fed's Q2 GDP Forecast Crumbles From 4.3% to 3.6% - (www.zerohedge.com) It's
deja vu all over again. Just one week
after its initial forecast, the Atlanta Fed has lobbed off a whopping 17% from
its initial GDP estimate of 4.3%, and moments ago revised its Q2 GDP tracker to
3.6% due to declines in real consumer spending growth and real private fixed
investment. Four months after the
Atlanta Fed started off its Q1 GDP nowcast at 2.5%, then raised it just shy of
3.5% before eventually crashing, and closing the books at 0.2%, slightly below
where the BEA reported Q1 GDP, on May 1 the regional Fed released its initial
GDP forecast for Q2, and, as we noted last week, it came as no surprise to anyone that the
initial estimate was just a tad optimistic at 4.3%, to which we commented that
if past is prologue, "expect this number to end roughly 50% lower in
three months when the first advance Q1 GDP report is released." One week
later, we are a third of the way there, because moments ago, the Atlanta Fed
did just as expected, and chopped off a whopping 17% from its initial estimate,
revising its Q2 GDP estimate from 4.3% as of May 1 (and 4.2% as of May 4) to
3.6%, due to a decline in forecast real consumer spending growth and real
private fixed investment.
Santander
has dropped 800-plus car dealerships amidst loan-quality worries - (www.autonews.com) Santander
Consumer USA has terminated more than 800 dealerships since 2015, based on
"performance-related issues," leaving the lender with more than
15,000 dealership customers nationwide, the lender said late last month. ... In
March, Santander Consumer agreed to pay $25.9 million to resolve investigations
by the attorneys general in those two states into its financing and
securitization of subprime auto loans. Santander Consumer said that starting in
2013, it monitored dealer performance quarterly, based on quantitative metrics
such as loss performance vs. expectations. In 2014, it created a monthly dealer
performance management process.
Wall
Street fear barometer falls to 1993 low - (www.reuters.com) The
S&P 500 ended flat on Monday after briefly touching a record high, while
Wall Street's "fear gauge" dropped to its lowest in over two decades
following centrist Emmanuel Macron's victory in the French presidential
election. The CBOE Volatility index dropped 0.8 point to close at 9.77, its
lowest since 1993 as investors took comfort from Macron's victory, as well as
from strong quarterly reports in recent weeks. A declining VIX typically
indicates a bullish outlook for stocks, but the extreme lows the index has
touched are sounding caution for some stock investors...
Repeat
foreclosures in New York have reached an all-time high (proving HAMP mostly
protected banks, not consumers) - (www.nypost.com) The
number of repeat foreclosure filings in New York City far outstrips that of
other major cities like Los Angeles, while New York state is No. 1 for repeat
foreclosures, outpacing every other state and the US as a whole. In a report
prepared exclusively for The Post, Attom Data Solutions found that in New York
City last year, roughly 4,900 -- or more than half of all new foreclosures
filed -- were repeats, up from just 5 percent in 2008. Statewide, 73 percent of
the 49,200 new foreclosure cases -- or roughly 35,916 foreclosures -- over the
past 12 months were repeats, up from 20 percent in 2007, according to Black
Knight, which collects data reported by servicers. ...
"The same owners in the same properties
... are stuck in distress that never seems to resolve," said Daren
Blomquist, senior vice president at Attom, adding, "It's more acute in New
York than in other markets."
U.S.
Stocks Mixed, VIX at 24-Yr Low as Bonds Drop: Markets Wrap - (www.bloomberg.com)
China's Stock Shakeout Creates Most Divided Market in 15 Years - (www.bloomberg.com)
China has now become the biggest fear for markets - (www.cnbc.com)
Trump review of Wall Street rules to be done in stages: sources - (www.reuters.com)
Italy’s bad debt problem refuses to go away - (www.ft.com)
Forget Taxes, Warren Buffett Says. The Real Problem Is Health Care. - (www.nytimes.com)
China's Stock Shakeout Creates Most Divided Market in 15 Years - (www.bloomberg.com)
China has now become the biggest fear for markets - (www.cnbc.com)
Trump review of Wall Street rules to be done in stages: sources - (www.reuters.com)
Italy’s bad debt problem refuses to go away - (www.ft.com)
Forget Taxes, Warren Buffett Says. The Real Problem Is Health Care. - (www.nytimes.com)
