Tag Archives: Interest

U.S. consumers have begun to feel reverberations from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike earlier this month in some areas of their lives, but not in others. Unfortunately for those consumers, it’s all the wrong places — their savings accounts haven’t budged. Mortgage rates jumped immediately from 4.16% to around 4.5%, and are now ticking up close to 5%. This sent the number of applications down 8.1% the following week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The average… 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 Tuesday, March 22, 2022 Home prices are soaring and later this morning we will find out by how much, when the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index is released. On top of exorbitant home prices, mortgage rates are on the rise — the 30-year fixed mortgage (most common among homebuyers) topped 4% earlier this month for the… Source link

If it feels like 2022 has been a little less exciting for the cryptocurrency space, your instinct may not be too far off. Judging by Google search trends, interest in cryptocurrencies have hit a short-term peak. Global interest in virtual currencies like bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ethereum (ETH-USD) are 70% below their 2021 highs, according to new data from DataTrek. Query volumes for “nft” [non-fungible tokens] are also pretty weak at 65% lower than their January 2022 highs. Peak crypto… Source link

The Federal Reserve entering an interest-rate hiking cycle will have ramifications for the U.S. economy over time, stresses former Fed economist Vincent Reinhart. “Mortgages will be a little more expensive. You may see some increases in loan rates. It will be harder to buy a car on credit. That is the slowing,” Reinhart, who is now chief economist at Dreyfus and Mellon, said on Yahoo Finance Live. One could officially start the clock on these things happening. The Fed widely delivered its first… Source link

Interactive Brokers founder and billionaire Thomas Peterffy has spotted one likely unintended consequence of the Federal Reserve embarking on raising interest rates. “There is a lot of leverage in the system as the Fed begins to raise rates. We will be looking at bankruptcies maybe among many of the private equity firms that are invested in on the high leverage, and in several businesses that basically will not be able to pay the interest,” Petterffy told Yahoo Finance. Despite that very real… Source link

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised short-term interest rates for the first time since 2018, as high inflation pushes the central bank to pull back on its extraordinary pandemic-era support. The U.S. central bank lifted its benchmark Federal Funds Rate by 0.25%, to a target range of between 0.25% and 0.50%. The Fed also noted that the economic outlook remains “highly uncertain” in the face of the war in Ukraine. By notching up rates, the Fed kicks off a process of raising borrowing… Source link

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem speaks during a news conference (REUTERS/Blair Gable) The Bank of Canada raised its target for the overnight rate to 0.50 per cent. The 25 bps hike to contain inflation is the first since 2018, after cutting to help cushion the pandemic’s economic blow in 2020. Canada’s central bank says more rate hikes are coming but says it is following the situation in Ukraine closely. “The unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russia is a major new source of… Source link

The Federal Reserve is unlikely to back off raising interest rates starting at its March meeting as it wrestles with trying to fight red-hot inflation against the backdrop of Russia invading Ukraine. “The current situation is different from past episodes when geopolitical events led the Fed to delay tightening or ease because inflation risk has created a stronger and more urgent reason for the Fed to tighten today than existed in past episodes,” said Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan Hatzius… Source link

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday settled charges with BlockFi Lending over its failure to register its cryptocurrency interest account, bringing the largest ever penalty against a crypto firm. The SEC found BlockFi violated three areas of federal securities laws – including selling unregistered securities, operating as an unregistered investment company and making “material false and misleading statements” on its website that the loans were over collateralized. “This is… Source link

It’s been a frustrating pandemic-long journey for house seekers like Adan Martinez. He’s been hoping to buy his first home near Harlingen, Texas, with a budget of $200,000.  “There were several homes I was interested in but waited off on, $180K and $215K, respectfully. But mid-year last year, prices on them jumped to well over $50K-80K,” Martinez told Yahoo Finance.  The rush to find a home is now greater than ever. Home prices keep rising — as mortgage rates inch higher. “[I’m] definitely… Source link