Investment Learning

  • August 16, 2024

Market moves, tech rally, Harris's economic policy: 3 Things

Stock futures (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) are dipping into negative territory ahead of Friday's market open, coming off of Thursday's rally fueled by July retail sales and lower-than-expected initial jobless claims. The tech sector (XLK) is leading market rallies in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite as Big Tech names rebound from recent sell-offs. Chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) is up over 17% in the last five trading days. Vice President Kamala Harris will outline her economic policy agenda at a speech in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, focusing on taming inflation and reducing grocery, housing, and prescription drug prices for American consumers. For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Morning Brief. This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

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  • August 16, 2024

New NAR rules will make major changes to realtor payments

Historic changes are coming to the housing market this weekend. New rules from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) will transform how realtors get paid and compensated for helping people buy and sell their homes, going into effect on Saturday, August 17.  KBW managing director Ryan Tomasello joins Catalysts to discuss how the new regulations could transform the housing market. "Over the long run, this is going to provide a lot more transparency for home shoppers. It's going to allow more agents to compete more heavily on price and quality. But over the near term, I think it's probably going to be a bit of a bumpy road as the market digests these changes in such short order, and also at a time when the housing market itself has a laundry list of complexities around it, from rates to supply," Tomasello explains.  In the long-term, Tomasello believes these rules are likely to reduce the friction costs of buying and selling a home, which, in turn, could increase transaction activity. "There's been a lot of chatter amongst the agent community, more and more education on the part of consumers. And so the question becomes if belief creates reality around commissions actually coming down, if both agents think that commissions are coming down and consumers are aware of this new structure, we do think that that puts downward pressure on commissions at the margin over time," he adds. For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Catalysts. This post was written by Melanie Riehl

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  • August 15, 2024

Mortgage rates tick higher, still at lowest level since 2023

Mortgage rates inched higher this week as markets await a potential interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve at its September policy meeting. According to the latest Freddie Mac data (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation), the typical 30-year fixed mortgage rate climbed to 6.49%, a modest increase from the previous week's 6.47% and marking the lowest average levels in over a year. Yahoo Finance housing reporter Dani Romero breaks down the details, providing insights into what it means for home buyers and sellers in the broader housing market. For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination. This post was written by Angel Smith

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  • August 14, 2024

Expect a 'good' housing market the rest of this year: Expert

July's Consumer Price Index (CPI) saw the cost of shelter increase 0.4% in the month. Meanwhile, mortgage applications surged 16.8% last week from 6.9% the week prior. Mphasis Digital Risk founder and managing director Jeff Taylor joins Market Domination Overtime to discuss the state of the housing market and its trajectory as the Federal Reserve initiates interest rate cuts. "What we saw in the refinance market was the biggest one-week jump in almost two years. And if we look at the broader [mortgage] rate market right now, we're down a full point to 6.5%, down from a high in April of 2024. And as the Fed has talked about over the course of the last couple of weeks, we're looking at potentially one to two rate cuts this year, maybe September, maybe December, maybe a total of 75 basis points," Taylor tells Julie Hyman and Josh Schafer. "So for the first time in over two and a half years, I think that we're really starting to hit a spot here in a period of time where interest rates are going to come back down coupled with affordability getting a little bit better... Those things coming together are really going to shape up for what could be a good housing market in the rest of this year and in the spring buying season," he explains. He notes that in a recent survey, Mphasis found that 48% of potential homebuyers are looking for a 5% rate in order to feel ready to purchase a home. He expects permanent mortgage rate cuts to come when the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates: "If you look at September through December of this year, you could probably see triple the amount of refinance volume as you have in the previous two years on a monthly basis because, ahead of the Fed, the markets will move to MBS [mortgage-backed securities] and then mortgage rates will come down." For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination Overtime. This post was written by Melanie Riehl

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  • August 14, 2024

Investing in the future: ETF themes based around AI, robotics

Artificial intelligence and robotics are ever-expanding industries, with new research and innovations coming out every day and major companies competing to get the next and best new tech. What are the best ways to begin investing into the space? As part of Yahoo Finance's Robotics Week: Investing in Tomorrow special, BlackRock US Head of Thematic and Active ETFs Jay Jacobs sits down with Julie Hyman and Josh Schafer to talk about how investor portfolios can gain exposure to this next generation of technology. "We're looking to provide exposure across the value chain of pure-play artificial intelligence companies. That includes everything from generative AI model developers to artificial intelligence infrastructure, software and data, as well as artificial intelligence hardware... think semiconductors," Jacobs tells Yahoo Finance. "The idea is that as you see more adoption of artificial intelligence, more use cases that are being put to work... we would expect more adoption of artificial intelligence to ultimately lift this basket of stocks. That is the idea behind really trying to be very, very specific about what is the value chain of artificial intelligence BlackRock manages a variety of exchange-traded funds, including the iShares Future AI & Tech ETF (ARTY) and iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX). For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination. This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

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