8/7/24

Mortgages are getting a bit cheaper

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 6.55% this week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That’s the biggest weekly drop in more than two years, taking home loan rates down to their lowest level since May 2023. The drop is driven, in part, by the recent market wobble and worries about the American economy.

It may take a steeper drop to move buyers off the sidelines, as most measures of housing affordability show this is the least affordable market since the mid-1980s.

Mortgage rates fall to 6.55%, the lowest in two years

US Mortgage Rates Tumble to 6.55% in Biggest Drop in Two Years

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Matt Phillips

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Intel cuts expense forecast, sees best gain in weeks

Intel shares jumped after the partially nationalized US chip giant snipped its forecast for operating expenses this year to $16.8 billion from $17 billion after finalizing the divestiture of 51% of its stake in its Altera programmable chip unit to private equity firm Silver Lake.

Shortly after 12 p.m. ET the stock was up 4%, Intel’s best gain since August 22, when the Trump administration announced the extraordinary step of having the federal government take a 10% ownership stake in the private chip company.

Intel trims full-year expense outlook following Altera stake sale

OpenAI doesn’t have the cash to pay Oracle $300 billion — raising it will test the very limits of private markets

The ChatGPT maker plans to burn though $115 billion by 2029. No company in history has ever lit that much money on fire intentionally, let alone tried funding such a splurge through private markets alone.

David Crowther2h

Matt Phillips

Seagate, Western Digital romp as hard drive makers dominate S&P 500 leaderboard

Hard drive makers Seagate Technology Holdings and Western Digital surged Monday, putting them comfortably in the top two spots of this year’s top performers in the S&P 500.

Shortly after 10:30 a.m. ET, they were looking at gains of roughly 145% and 130%, respectively, for the year.

Not much news on the day, though Bank of America analysts have boosted the price target for Seagate to $215 from $170 while upwardly revising their outlook for hard disk drive demand this year, per The Fly.

Positive background music on the US and China’s trade relationship, important to IT hardware makers, is also likely helping, along with a general upswing in the AI data center trade.

Data storage is so hot right now

Positive background music on the US and China’s trade relationship, important to IT hardware makers, is also likely helping, along with a general upswing in the AI data center trade.

Luke Kawa

International investors want to own US assets — and have nothing to do with the US dollar

Looking at ETF flows, Deutsche Bank’s George Saravelos found that 80% of recent foreign inflows into US stocks and 50% of inflows into US bonds have been on a hedged basis.

College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic - Clemson v Notre Dame

Max Knoblauch

Nio climbs ahead of new SUV launch as Chinese EV giants recommit to paying suppliers faster

Shares of Chinese EV maker Nio climbed in Monday morning trading as investors cheered news that its ES8 SUV — priced to compete with Tesla’s Model Y — will begin deliveries this weekend.

Nio may also be seeing a boost from the recommitment by several Chinese EV giants on Monday to pay their suppliers within 60 days. That effort could help tame some of the brutal price wars between automakers in the country, which the Chinese government has struggled to contain.

The move is seen as a boost to the stability of the Chinese auto industry, and Nio rivals Li Auto and BYD also climbed.

At the end of 2023, Nio took nearly 300 days to pay its suppliers, according to Bloomberg reporting. In June, Nio and 16 other Chinese automakers agreed to the 60-day payment window, though a government report in August found that only three had set up payment systems.

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