Sharp dive for mortgage rates sets off new refinancing boom Many homeowners know a good deal when they see one. Demand for refinance mortgages is soaring, a survey by a major lenders trade association finds. Homeowners are stampeding toward mortgage rates that have been driven back toward all-time lows by worries about the Delta variant and by the elimination of a widely despised fee on refi loans. But U.S. homeowners are still leaving lots of money on the table. Online real estate marketplace… Source link

Amazon’s second quarter underscored its ongoing dominance in all things retail and cloud services, but some squishy aspects to the earnings release have investors in profit-taking mode.  Shares of the tech beast dropped more than 6% in pre-market trading on Friday after the company surprisingly missed on sales estimates. Several factors in the report are likely weighing on the minds of investors.  First, the headline sales miss marked the first time Amazon (AMZN) missed consensus revenue… Source link

This article first appeared in the Morning Brief. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe Friday, July 30, 2021 Robinhood shares fall on their first day of trading Shares of Robinhood (HOOD) sank by more than 8% on the company’s first day of trading, and day two starts in just a few hours.  The public debut for any company is exciting. But in many ways the Robinhood IPO meant a little more, serving as a sort of natural endnote to the… Source link

(Bloomberg) — Chinese stocks fell on Friday, rounding off a volatile week for investors struggling to price in Beijing’s tightening regulatory grip after a rout pushed the nation’s key equity index to the brink of a bear market. The CSI 300 index fell 0.8% on the day and 5.5% for the week, the worst since February. In Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index, which earlier this week saw its biggest two-day loss since 2008, dropped 1.4%. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. slipped 4.2% while Meituan lost… Source link

(Bloomberg) — U.S. equity futures slid with stocks Friday as investors worried about slowing growth at megacap technology companies and risks from China’s regulatory crackdown. Treasuries and the dollar rose. Nasdaq 100 contracts slid more than 1% as Amazon.com Inc. tumbled in extended trading after its sales outlook missed expectations, adding to this week’s cautious forecasts from Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc. S&P 500 futures also fell. Stocks resumed declines in Hong Kong and China, a… Source link

WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O) has asked a judge hearing the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against the search and advertising giant to compel Microsoft to turn over documents, saying it has failed to comply with a subpoena, according to a court filing unsealed late Thursday. Google served a subpoena to Microsoft MSFT.O more than three months ago, seeking documents regarding Microsoft’s Bing search engine as well as its Internet Explorer and Edge but has… Source link

Artist Don Kennell checks that everything is secured on his giant camel sculpture, titled Traverse, before sending it from La Puerta Originals on Wednesday in Santa Fe to the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif. The 18-foot-tall, 6,000-pound statue will feature prominently inside Google’s headquarters. Source link

S&P 500 and Dow futures opened slightly higher, while Nasdaq futures sank as the overnight session kicked off to track a decline in heavily weighted component Amazon.  The three major indexes had closed out Thursday’s regular session higher as investors contemplated more corporate earnings results and a second-quarter U.S. GDP report that missed lofty economists’ expectations. But traders appeared to take the latest economic data as a sign bolstering the Federal Reserve’s case to keep… Source link

Scarlett Johansson and Disney (DIS) locked horns on Thursday over the release of “Black Widow,” with the entertainment behemoth dismissing a high-stakes breach of contract lawsuit as “sad and distressing.” Johansson, who starred in multiple Marvel Cinematic Universe movies as Natasha “Black Widow” Romanov, fired the first salvo in a bombshell filing that alleged Disney broke its contract with her by releasing her solo feature on streaming platform Disney+ on the same day as… Source link

Google has backtracked on plans to welcome most workers back to its sprawling campus in September, becoming the latest Silicon Valley company to delay reopening amid a surge in Covid cases. The company announced Wednesday it is postponing a return to the office until mid-October and rolling out a policy that will eventually require everyone who returns in person to be vaccinated. The decision sees Google join Apple and Netflix in postponing calling employees back to the office due to concerns… Source link