Posts Tagged ‘fourth quarter’
WATCH: The Garden Erupts After These Two Huge Plays By Jeremy Lin
When the Knicks are good, there may not be a more exciting arena in all of professional sports than Madison Square Garden. And while the Garden has been rocking with Linsanity for about a week now, it may have reached a new level late in the fourth quarter today when Jeremy Lin sized up Dirk Nowitzki and then drained a huge 3-pointer over the 7-footer.
And earlier, there was another eruption (video below) when Lin made a steal and then delivered a dunk to end the third quarter. Note where Lin is when the play starts and how he anticipates the errant pass.
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See Also:
- All Three New York City Tabloids Run Same Jeremy Lin Headline Following Knicks Loss
- Jeremy Lin’s Agent Talks Linsanity With Darren Rovell
- WATCH: Saturday Night Live’s Take On Jeremy Lin And Race Was Actually Pretty Funny
More buy-to-let mortgages approved
The number of properties bought with buy-to-let mortgages increased by 84,000 in 2011 according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ latest figures.
In the final quarter, 34,800 buy-to-let mortgages totalling £4 billion were approved, compared with 26,300 worth a total of £2.9 billion, in the 2010 final quarter.
Demand for rented accommodation has increased significantly since the 2007 credit crunch caused mortgage lenders to tighten up their criteria and demand much higher deposits than previously.
However despite the renewed interest in property rental, the buy-to-let market has a long way to go before it reaches the 93,000 buy-to-let loans approved in the third quarter of 2007, when the market was at its peak.
It isn’t all good news for landlords though, as new research by the BDRC Continental quarterly Landlords Panel reveals a substantial increase in the number of landlords making a loss.
In the fourth quarter of 2011, 8 per cent of landlords with 20 or more properties made a loss, compared with just 1 per cent in the third quarter.
The research also showed that rental yields for all landlords fell from 6.7 per cent in the third quarter, to 5.9 per cent in the final quarter of 2011.
Meanwhile Skipton Building Society has reduced rates and fees on its buy-to-let mortgages.
The rate on Skipton’s two-year fixed rate buy-to-let mortgage for those with a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 70 per cent or less has been reduced to 3.89 per cent from 4.09 per cent.
There is an application fee of £245 for the product and a completion fee of £2,250.
Skipton’s Head of Products, Kris Brewster, said: “We recognise that landlords play a vital role in bringing competition and vitality to the struggling mortgage market – as well as providing private letting options for the first time buyers of the future.”
THE EUROZONE IS SHRINKING SLIGHTLY LESS THAN EXPECTED
Total eurozone GDP showed less than expected contraction at -0.3% q/q versus expectations for -0.4%. This is the first contraction since 2009, but remember, it takes quarters of negative growth in a row to constitute a recession.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index is up 0.5%.
European markets were also boosted by talk of additional support from China and strong earnings from BNP Paribas, Heineken and Peugot.
Dutch preliminary fourth quarter GDP missed bigtime with a -0.7% q/q decline versus expectations for +0.3% q/q growth.
Italy showed -0.7% q/q contraction, worse than already ugly expectations for -0.6% contraction.
France on the other hand smashed expectations with +0.2% q/q growth versus expectations of a -0.2% q/q contraction.
German GDP showed a -0.2% q/q contraction, beating expectations of a -0.3% q/q contraction.
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See Also:
- Neel Kashkari On Europe: We Had Time To Prepare For Lehman Brothers, But That Still Ended In A Massive Shock
- European Markets Get Crushed On A Chaotic Day For Greece
- UBS Answers: Who Are The Fittest Countries In Europe?
Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Monday, February 13, 2012 (RGC, MAS, RAX, LPS, HMA)
Monday opens a busy, albeit slower, earnings week, with companies like Regal Entertainment reporting. It will be a light data day as well, with Asia and Europe fueling news. There are no major economic announcements scheduled in the U.S.
Here’s what you need to know.
- Japan starts the day off early with a preliminary reading of fourth quarter GDP at 6:50 p.m. EST on Sunday evening. Economists predict a contraction in the country of 0.3 percent during the quarter.
- Australia continues the Pacific announcements at 7:30 p.m. EST, with new home loans, which are forecast to gain 1.8 percent during the month. That’s an acceleration from November’s 1.4 rise.
- Economic announcements go quiet until 2:00 a.m. EST on Monday, when Germany reports wholesale prices. The index last showed a no increase in December.
- Romanian and Slovak January consumer prices follow at 3:00 a.m. EST, with forecasts for a 0.6 percent and 0.9 percent increase, respectively. The two countries both saw small rises in December.
- Swiss producer and import prices are seen increasing by 0.2 percent in January, which would still be 2.2 percent below year-ago levels. The release is scheduled for 3:15 a.m. EST.
- At 8:00 a.m. EST, Polish exports and imports will be announced. Consensus from 14 economists polled by Bloomberg expect both to slow from November, with exports at €10.7 billion and imports at €11.6 billion. However, those figures both represent gains on year ago movements.
- Attention shifts to Mexico at 9:00 a.m. EST for industrial production. Economists forecast that manufacturing will gain 0.5 percent in December from November.
Below, a roundup of tomorrow’s big announcers.
Regal Entertainment Group (RGC): $0.04
Masco (MAS): -$0.02
Rackspace Hosting (RAX): $0.15
Lender Processing Services (LPS): $0.58
Health Management Associates (HMA): $0.20
Consensus estimates provided by Bloomberg.
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See Also:
- Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Friday, February 10, 2012
- Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Wednesday, February 8, 2012
- Here Are The Key Market Moving Events For Thursday, February 9, 2012
It’s Down To Apple Vs. Samsung In The Smartphone Wars
This post originally appeared at 24/7 Wall St.
HTC, Motorola (NYSE: MMI), LG and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) might as well curtail their efforts in the smartphone arena. The industry has only two companies left with the ongoing opportunity for extremely large sales — Samsung and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).
A new study from Strategy Analytics shows that in the fourth quarter Apple shipped 37 million smartphones and overtook Samsung to become once again the world’s number one smartphone vendor by volume. Global sales of smartphones were up 54% to 155 million units. Between Apple and Samsung, sales were almost 74 million for the period — nearly half of the total.
Samsung announced its fourth-quarter earnings about the same time as Strategy Analytics released its figures. Its net income rose 17% over last year’s quarter to $3.6 billion. Over the course of 2011, the South Korean company shipped 300 million handsets. Apple’s recently announced earnings were even more impressive.
Read the rest of the story at 24/7 Wall St.
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See Also:
- Yet More Reasons To Be Blown Away By Apple’s Earnings
- The Day Apple Left The Tech World’s Collective Mouth Agape
- 2011 GDP: 1.7%