This just in: Morgan Stanley's Ken Posner, one of the most respected analysts in the business, has takenhis ratings on the mortgage finance industry down a notch. On Friday he lowered the sector to "in-line"from "attractive." Mr. Posner now believes the stellar growth in home values is "unsustainable,"forecasting appreciation of just 2% next year. He labeled Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and ARM giant GoldenWest "safer" stocks in the group and gave "underweight" ratings to MGIC and PMI...
Meanwhile, Genworth Financial, the parent of GE Mortgage Insurance, saw its stock hit a new 52-weekhigh this past week. GEMI, in the first half, wrote $12.2 billion in new policies, ranking sixth out of the sevenMI firms...
As we went to press, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was sinking once again -- this time to 4.165% which meanslenders might be getting a few more refi applications than anticipated. It also might mean the hot ARM market couldchange course. On Wednesday Freddie Mac's chief economist Frank Nothaft predicted that ARMs are peakingnow. He also noted that conventional mortgage rates are at 5.77%, the lowest they've been in five months...
The alt-A market is on fire and Wall Street firms are continuing to buy product like there's no tomorrow. Fora list of the nation's top alt-A firms, see Monday's edition of National Mortgage News or read thelatest issue of the Quarterly Data Report...
In last weekend's column we noted that the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle wanted to become a broker/dealerso it could trade in MBS. But a spokesman for the bank took exception with our characterization of what the Seattle-basedinstitution is up to. He said that as a technical matter the FHLB would be using an outside broker/dealer to facilitatetrades for the GSE. Why would the FHLB do this, not trade the MBS itself? Probably because it would have to becomea registered/broker dealer and there would be other regulatory-related issues. Has the FHLB hired a Wall Streetfirm to trade for it? Not yet, he said, but it is looking...
Subprime lender Aames Financial reported that it earned $90.7 million for its just-ended fiscal year,not bad for a firm that was given up for dead a few years back. Aames is listed on the "pink sheets."Its stock symbol is AMSF.OB...
Countrywide plans to triple its office space in Chandler, Ariz., and add 2,500 jobs there. The companyreleased its August production numbers on Friday. Among the highlights: home-equity fundings reached a monthlyrecord of $3.1 billion, an 80% gain from August of last year...
Washington Mutual chief Kerry Killinger will present at a Lehman Brothers financial servicesconference at the Hilton in New York on Tuesday. He should be getting a lot of questions about the future of thegiant thrift...
East West Mortgage, a k a EW Mortgage, is now advertising direct to consumers on the YahooFinance webpage...
WASHINGTON NEWS: The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into alleged violations of campaignfinance laws by Freddie Mac's former top lobbyist, according to an attorney who filed a civil complaint with theFederal Elections Commission. Public Citizen lobbyist Craig Holman -- who late last year askedthe FEC to investigate Freddie's lobbyist Mitch Delk -- confirmed that the FBI "has taken over theinvestigation of the issue." He noted, "The fact that the FBI has taken over the investigation meansthey suspect criminal activity." He added, "My complaint centered around civil violations -- violationsof contribution limits." Dow Jones first reported the story. Public Citizen is a public interest group.It was once affiliated with consumer activist Ralph Nader but is no longer.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: The Government Accounting Office, the auditing arm of Congress, has changedits name to the Government Accountability Office. The name change, not exactly heralded in the general media,happened about two months ago...
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: IndyMac Bancorp has named Carolyn Poppe first vice president, nationalsubprime operations manager. She joins the bank from Long Beach Mortgage, which is owned by WaMu. AmericanMortgage Network has named Deborah Goguen-Ellis vice president and manager of its Mid-Atlantic regionalcenter in Fairfax, Va.
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