Dow finished up 131, decliners over 2-1 & NAZ retreated 66 in what has been a tough week for stocks (i.e. tech stocks). The MLP index was fractionally lower to the 115s & the REIT index fell 1+ to the 352s. Junk bond funds were little moved in price & Treasuries had a modest gain. Oil was up a tad in the 37s & gold gave back 13 to 1950.
AMJ (Alerian MLP Index tracking fund)
![Live 24 hours gold chart [Kitco Inc.]](https://www.kitco.com/images/live/gold.gif?0.2180338269244485)
The number of US cases and deaths resulting from the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 continued to climb to lead the world, prompting Dr Anthony Fauci to express frustration in the “lack of success” the US has had in containing the outbreak as the pandemic reached the 6-month mark. The US case toll rose above 6.4M & more than 191K have died, according to the New York Times. That comes after 37K new cases were reported yesterday, above the daily average of 36K over the past week & as the death toll increased 915. Fauci, who is head of the National Institute for Allergies & Infectious Diseases & the White House adviser on the coronavirus, said that every day he looks at the COVID-19 data, he gets “more depressed and more depressed” that daily cases have never declined to the baseline he would like. He added that while daily new cases have come down a bit — the daily average is down 16% from the average 2 weeks earlier — he said it was still an “extraordinarily unacceptable baseline” when considering the economy is reopening. When he presented data showing the reason for the high baseline, when compared with other countries, was likely because the US didn't shut down to the extent of other countries, he “got a little push back from people in the government.”
Coronavirus update: U.S. case and death tallies keep rising
After a substantial decline last week, the number of borrowers in coronavirus-related mortgage bailout programs dropped by a lot less this week. It's a signal that homeowners still need a lot more help in order to recover from the ongoing economic ills of the pandemic. There are also indications that a new foreclosure crisis could be on the horizon. As of this week, 3.7M borrowers are still in gov & private sector mortgage forbearance programs. That's about 7% of all active mortgages, according to Black Knight, a mortgage technology & data firm. These plans allow borrowers to delay monthly payments for at least 3 months &, in some cases, up to a year. More than 2M forbearance plans are set to expire this month, & so far about 350K borrowers have started making their monthly payments again. On the other hand, about ¾ of those still in bailout plans, delaying their payments & sinking deeper into debt, are now in renewals. They have extended their plans by another 3 months. These borrowers are likely unemployed or receiving reduced income due to the pandemic. About 48K borrowers started their first forbearance plans this month, which is the lowest level since the bailouts began. So while some of the numbers are improving, the forecasts for foreclosures are deteriorating. The number of seriously delinquent mortgages, those that are at least 90 days past due, more than doubled from May to Jun. The figure hit its highest level in more than 5 years, according to CoreLogic. Barring further gov support, experts there predict serious delinquencies could double again by early 2022, which could seriously hurt home prices and home equity.
Coronavirus mortgage bailouts decline, but a foreclosure crisis could be brewing
Oil was down 6% for the week while gold managed to edge higher by 8 to 1950 in what was a very tough week for stock & commodity markets. Dow pulled back 500 & NAZ, which has been in a rally mode about all year, fell almost 500. NAZ is also down more than 1K below its record above 12K made on Sep 2. With all the gloom out there over the virus fight & reopening parts of the economy, there was some good news at the global level. Bahrain normalized ties with Israel in what has been a quietly good relationship for several years. Next week the stock market may resume its attempts to reverse the down market in Sep (traditionally the toughest month of the year).
Dow Jones Industrials
No comments:
Post a Comment