Fixed income

Title insurers benefited from the increase in origination volume — especially refinancings — during the second quarter, as open order counts increased compared with one year prior.

Altisource Portfolio Solutions cut its previous-quarter net loss by 49% in its most recent fiscal period, when property maintenance revenue and new Hubzu real estate auction site inventory increased.

MGIC reported higher-than-expected earnings, seen as a positive for the other mortgage insurers, plus Flagstar and KeyCorp had strong quarters for their mortgage businesses.

Pretax mortgage income at NVR Inc. surged 37% year-over-year in the second quarter while originations rose 1%, contrasting more tepid home-loan earnings results relative to originations at big banks.

Hovnanian Enterprises, the corporate parent of homebuilder K Hovnanian Homes, received a new notice from the New York Stock Exchange indicating its low market capitalization could jeopardize its listing status.

The second quarter continues to shape up as a good one for bank mortgage lenders — and one ancillary service provider — that are benefiting from a spike in volume.

Despite a significant rise in first-mortgage production due to lower interest rates, profits from home lending in Citigroup's retail banking division fell slightly in the second quarter.

Builder MDC Holdings' preliminary numbers for net new home orders registered their highest quarterly increase in years, adding to signs of growing demand for housing.

Mortgage rates ticked up slightly this week with opposing trends in the stock and bond markets fighting for dominance, according to Freddie Mac.

Genworth Financial is marketing its stake in Genworth MI Canada in a possible last-ditch effort to save the long-delayed proposed acquisition by China Oceanwide.

A long list of "preparatory steps" means that any potential Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac initial public offerings are at least three to four years away, according to Raymond James.

First American Financial Corp. tumbled the most in nearly eight years amid concerns that a security flaw at the title insurer may have allowed unauthorized access to more than 885 million records related to mortgage deals going back to 2003.

Zillow's mortgage division experienced better customer demand in the first quarter than it expected, but its revenue was outweighed by expenses that led to a pretax loss of $9.6 million.

Lower rates hurt the value of Impac Mortgage Holdings' servicing rights and overall earnings in the first quarter, but they could help improve the company's second-quarter results.

Lower interest rates caused mortgage serving rights runoff plus a charge to the fair value of that portfolio and led to Ocwen Financial posting a first-quarter loss.

Intercontinental Exchange's proposed acquisition of Simplifile will enhance its MERS unit's growing presence in handling electronic notes.

First-quarter year-over-year results declined at a pair of mortgage bankers active in the acquisitions market as well as at the provider of the most used servicing technology.

In a long-term attempt to stabilize its earnings from the cyclical nature of home loans, HomeStreet took a loss in the opening quarter of 2019.

Title underwriters and other vendors reported year-over-year declines in business activity (although some reported improved profitability), but lower interest rates made them optimistic about their prospects going forward.

Even after integrating the 52 Wells Fargo branches acquired in December as part of its efforts to diversify beyond home lending, Flagstar Bancorp's first-quarter earnings were driven by increased mortgage revenue.