From the monthly archives:
CIT Group is having a rough day, with the stock down roughly 39% at last check. What’s going on? CIT is a company that
does a lot of corporate finance — big-ticket equipment leasing to aerospace and rail customers, trade finance, student
lending, and vendor finance. It also has a book of home loans that it is [...]
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We got some timely data on the economy today … data that suggest the economy is struggling. A few details:
* Initial jobless claims filings jumped to 378,000 in the most recent week from 356,000 a week earlier. That’s the
highest reading yet for this cycle. If you exclude the weeks that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005, [...]
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The latest National Association of Home Builders index was just released. Here’s the skinny on the numbers:
* The overall index remained unchanged at 20 in March, in line with economists’ forecasts. That’s up from the
record low of 18, set in December, but far below the March 2007 level of 36.
* Among the sub-indices, the one [...]
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We just got a look at home construction activity in February. The devil is really in the details here, so allow me to
explain:
* Overall housing starts came in hotter than expected — 1.065 million units at a
seasonally adjusted annual rate. That was above the 995,000 units that the markets were looking for. Moreover,
January’s number was [...]
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