Pedestrians walk past signage for SoftBank Group outside a store in Tokyo, Japan, Nov. 29, 2018. Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images Digital mortgage lender Better.com announced Tuesday that it will make its market debut by merging with Aurora Acquisition Corp., valuing Better at $7.7 billion. The company, ranked No. 15 on last year’s CNBC Disruptor 50
Real estate agents leave a home for sale during a broker open house in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images A brief drop in mortgage interest rates sent some borrowers rushing to their lenders to see if they could get any savings. That sent total mortgage application volume up 2.1% last week from
Akapong Osotsil / EyeEm | EyeEm | Getty Images Consumer debt edged higher during the first three months of 2021, due primarily to a jump in mortgages and auto loans, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday. Total household debt balances rose by $85 billion in the first quarter, a 0.6% increase that brought the total level
From gas and groceries to computers, cars and clothing, Americans are already paying more for everyday expenses. As the economy reopens in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, consumers are putting their stimulus checks, enhanced unemployment benefits and stashed cash to work. Yet all that spending — coupled with supply chain setbacks — is
A general view of the Oakland Athletics playing against the Houston Astros with a limited capacity crowd at RingCentral Coliseum on April 03, 2021 in Oakland, California. Ezra Shaw | Getty Images Perhaps Major League Baseball is bluffing as it plays a game of baseball liar’s dice to help the Oakland Athletics secure a new
A man wearing a mask walks past the headquarters of the People’s Bank of China, the central bank, in Beijing, China, as the country is hit by an outbreak of the new coronavirus, February 3, 2020. Jason Lee | Reuters BEIJING — While investors around the world fret over inflation, China’s central bank has more
People wear protective face masks outside Salesforce Tower in New York City. Noam Galai | Getty Images Cloudera exited its downtown San Francisco office early last year with plans to sublease the space and move its employees south to the software company’s Silicon Valley headquarters. But the pandemic left the company with nobody to take
The work-from-anywhere culture of the coronavirus pandemic is not going away with vaccines, and that has created an opportunity for small cities to lure new residents. So-called digital nomads are in high demand and are now being offered cash to relocate. Programs are popping up across the country. The poachers don’t want the workers to
Nearly two-thirds, or 64%, of millennials (ages 25 to 40) say they have at least one regret about purchasing their current home, according to a new poll of more than 1,400 U.S. homeowners from Bankrate. Only about 45% of Gen X (ages 41 to 56) and 33% of baby boomers (ages 57 to 75) reported
Contractors work on single-family homes under construction in the Cadence Park development of The Great Park Neighborhoods in Irvine, California, on Wednesday, April 14, 2021. Bing Guan | Bloomberg | Getty Images Strong buyer demand is keeping homebuilders confident, but the risk of rising construction material costs continues to weigh on housing affordability. Builder sentiment
Connecticut will bring three rating upgrades to the table when it comes to market with a $1 billion exempt and taxable general obligation deal set for Wednesday. Fitch Ratings on Friday lifted Connecticut to AA-minus from A-plus. The action “reflects enhancements to the state’s fiscal management practices in recent years that are materially increasing the
Municipals held steady to slightly firmer in spots Friday after flat retail sales moved U.S. Treasuries stronger while equities gained back mid-week losses. Despite the slight pressure from economic data and overall market volatility, municipals continue to hold their own place in the capital markets. In the current environment, muni technicals are “simply overpowering,” said
The Puerto Rico Oversight Board voted to overrule the territory’s House of Representatives on spending for the privatization of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority transmission and distribution system. On Wednesday the House voted 43 to 0 with 2 abstentions against authorizing a revision to this year’s General Fund budget allocating $750 million for the
The Federal Reserve’s policy is in a good place right now, said Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, while playing down signals from data that she warns will be volatile as the economy reopens. “The volatility month-to-month I think is something we should expect, Mester said Friday in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “We’re really at
California Gov. Gavin Newsom capped a week of daily multi-billion dollar additions to his proposed $267.8 billion budget Friday with a plan to bring universal broadband to the state and expand Medi-Cal to undocumented immigrants over the age of 60. The governor began the week by declaring the state will a $75.7 billion surplus and
Connecticut officials enter this week’s $1 billion general obligation bond sale armed with four upgrades in six weeks, including three within two days last week. Fitch Ratings on Friday upgraded the state’s GO rating to AA-minus. One day earlier, Kroll Bond Rating Agency and S&P Global Ratings elevated Connecticut to AA and A-plus, respectively. Moody’s
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board appears poised to do away with a requirement that dealers provide disclosures to customers who may not be invested in municipals, a request industry groups have been making for years. The MSRB requested comment May 14 on potential changes to Rules G-10 on investor and municipal advisory client education and
As Colorado lawmakers seek a long-term source of transportation funding, the Centennial State is issuing $500 million of certificates of participation for rural highway projects. This week’s deal, scheduled to price Wednesday, is part of $2 billion authorized by the 2017 legislature under Senate Bill 17-267 for projects through fiscal 2022. The financing will go
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered the partial closure of the largest private sector employer in the U.S. Virgin Islands for at least 60 days because of public health risks. The EPA on Friday told the Limetree Bay Terminals and Limetree Bay Refining on St. Croix to stop refining oil because it is leading to
A new annual fee for electric cars and light trucks could become part of a bipartisan deal between congressional Republicans and the White House on a larger infrastructure package. Although the fee would only be a small revenue producer over the next few years, electric vehicles, also known as EVs, are a fast growing segment