Salient to Investors: Chinese landlords are forgoing rent and paying to outfit stores for mass-market fashion brands to blunt the impact of a boom in shopping-mall construction that threatens to push up vacancies. Big mall operators can withstand the slowdown at the expense of smaller ones as smaller cities add retail space
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jeffrey Lacker at FRB of Richmond said Financial markets will remain volatile as policy makers debate tapering, part of the process of incorporating new information into financial asset prices. Reaction to Bernanke’s comments is evidence that they had built-in expectations of more asset purchases than I think the
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Alexander Friedman at UBS says: What Fed has done is not unexpected and the market reacted because it was ahead of itself. All the Fed was saying was that the US is doing OK, that the data is trending as it should, and that it has confidence
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Freddie Mac said the average rate for a 30-yr fixed mortgage rose to 4.46 percent, the biggest one-week increase since 1987. Freddie Mac said rates would have to rise to 7 percent before a home at the US median price would be unaffordable to a family with median
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Property purchases by U.S. REITs are likely to be curtailed as a tumble in share prices makes a key source of capital costlier. Jim Sullivan at Green Street Advisors said for most property types, we have hit the pause button and expect REIT executives to be very careful with respect
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Freddie Mac said the average rate for a 30-yr fixed mortgage rose to 4.46 percent from 3.93 percent, the biggest one-week increase since 1987. The average 15-yr rate climbed to 3.5 percent from 3.04 percent. The average rate for a 30-yr mortgage in the 10 years through last
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: California Association of Realtors says the median price for a single-family home sold in San Francisco was $947,260 in May, up 32 percent from a year earlier, and estimates this will surpass $1 million this year. Condo prices rose 27 percent in May from a year earlier
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Corporate creditworthiness in the US is deteriorating at the fastest pace since 2009 with earnings growth slowing as yields rise from record lows. Moody’s said the ratio of upgrades to downgrades fell to 0.89 times in the first 5 months of the year after reaching a post-crisis
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Paul Willen at FRB of Boston said if people believe house prices are going up, credit availability will evolve because there is too much money to be made lending to homebuyers. Freddie Mac said the average rate for a 30-year fixed loan is at 3.93 percent versus 3.35 percent in May and
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Spending on lodging, office, commercial and manufacturing buildings grew 5.6 percent in April, the slowest pace in almost 2 years. Kermit Baker at the American Institute of Architects said this type of construction normally exhibits late-cycle growth because the design and building process may take several years, while activity
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