7.34%

Mortgage rates jump after price data

Consumers can’t get a break lately.

4/10/24 3:52PM

Slightly hot March inflation numbers continue to ricochet around the financial markets.

Yields on U.S. Treasury bonds — very sensitive to the outlook for growth and price increases — surged on the report. Yield on the 10-year T-note jumped by a fifth of a percentage point, or 0.20 percentage points, to 4.55%.

Since bond yields are the foundation for the borrowing costs consumers face, that pulled up other key interest costs.

For instance, trade publication Mortgage News Daily is reporting that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate jumped 0.28 percentage points on Wednesday to 7.34%.

The Mortgage News rate tends to be a bit higher than the overall rates that are reported by Freddie Mac weekly. But still it’s a decent snapshot of where things are headed.

At any rate, it’s clearly the case that the housing market will be facing some headwinds from higher rates in the coming months.

Home builders D.R. Horton, Lennar, and PulteGroup were some of the worst performing stocks in the S&P 500 during Wednesday’s session.

J. Edward Moreno

12m

Hims falls after FDA posts warning letter

The agency’s letter took issue with the claims made in Hims’ marketing materials.

Luke Kawa

57m

One mother’s LinkedIn post inspired GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen to give a surprise gift to a new employee

The GameStop CEO gave James, a teenage employee an Irving, Texas, an e-bike so he could get to work easier.

James poses with his new e-bike outside a GameStop store

Ralph Lauren falls as Wall Street digests the luxury brand’s modest growth plans

The high-end retailer delivered a solid revenue outlook, but warned that tariffs and inflation could squeeze margins.

Nia Warfield1h

Matt Phillips

Rocket Lab slammed after announcing share sale plans

When the market is throwing cheap cash at you, take it.

That’s essentially what Rocket Lab said it’s going to do by announcing an at-the-market share offering of up to $750 million in securities, hammering its stock price in early trading.

In an at-the-market offering, companies can sell shares directly into the market, effectively diluting existing shareholders, which explains the price move.

While the drop is likely painful for some shareholders who got into the stock only recently, selling shares is a pretty logical way for a company to, literally, capitalize on the market enthusiasm that has sent the stock up more than 600% over the last 12 months.

Rocket Lab said it intends to use the proceeds from the share sale for general corporate and working capital purposes. It also said it may use some of the money to pay the cash portion of the $75 million purchase price for German laser communications company Mynaric, a deal announced back in March, if that acquisition is finalized. (Mynaric was operating under the German version of bankruptcy protection at the time, making the acquisition somewhat complicated.)

“Pending these uses, we may invest the net proceeds from this offering in short-term, interest-bearing instruments. Accordingly, we will retain broad discretion over the use of these proceeds,” the company said.

SEC Filing | Rocket Lab Corporation

In an at-the-market offering, companies can sell shares directly into the market, effectively diluting existing shareholders, which explains the price move.

Nate Becker

Trump is suing the NYT for $15 billion, which is way more than the entire company is worth

President Donald Trump says he’s suing The New York Times, alleging defamation and seeking a whopping $15 billion in damages. In case you’re curious, that sum outstrips the entire market cap of the NYT, which was $9.65 billion as of yesterday’s close. It’s multitudes higher than the $540 million of cash on the company’s balance sheet. And it’s roughly equivalent to the Times’ last 28 quarters of revenue combined.

If you’re wondering whether investors think the lawsuit will eventually wind up gutting the Times, it’s worth noting that NYT stock is down 1.8% in early trading, which shaves about $173 million off its market cap.

Thank goodness, because it would be really tough to lose one of the premier game companies in the US that also has a pretty kickass journalism side hustle.

Trump to bring $15 billion defamation and libel lawsuit against The New York Times | CNN Business