Shares surge to 2-month high, dollar climbs ahead of Trump speech

FILE PHOTO - Visitors look at an electronic stock quotation board at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Tokyo, Japan, October 1, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

By Lewis Krauskopf

NEW YORK (Reuters) – World stocks raced to a fresh two-month high on Tuesday to keep up their fast start to 2019 while the U.S. dollar strengthened for a fourth straight session as investors awaited President Trump’s annual State of the Union speech later in the day.

With European shares posting strong gains and Wall Street opening solidly higher, MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.60 percent, rising for a sixth straight session as it hit a two-month high.

Trump was due to give his address at 2100 ET (0200 GMT), with investors awaiting indications of progress in U.S.-China trade talks and watching for signs of tensions with Democrats following a 35-day partial federal government shutdown.

The Federal Reserve’s dovish recent statement on interest rate policy, along with optimism over U.S.-China tensions, has fueled recent risk appetite, even as estimates for U.S. corporate earnings have been falling.

“Despite the State of the Union tonight, investors seem increasingly certain that we are going to avoid any escalation of the trade tensions with China and avoid another government shutdown,” said Jeffrey Kleintop, chief global investment strategist at Charles Schwab in Boston.

“Investors are viewing policy considerations offsetting falling earnings expectations,” Kleintop said.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 168.25 points, or 0.67 percent, to 25,407.62, the S&P 500 gained 11.94 points, or 0.44 percent, to 2,736.81 and the Nasdaq Composite added 55.71 points, or 0.76 percent, to 7,403.24.

Shares of Esta Lauder Cos and Ralph Lauren reacted favorably to the companies’ respective quarterly reports.

Fourth-quarter earnings for companies on the benchmark S&P 500 index were on track to have climbed 15.4 percent, but profit in the first quarter is now expected to rise by only 0.5 percent, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 1.33 percent, as BP shares jumped after its earnings report.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.22 percent, up for a fourth straight session, with the euro down 0.24 percent to $1.1408.

Continued recovery in investors’ appetite for risk-taking exerted pressure on safe-haven currencies, dragging the Swiss franc to an 11-week low against the dollar.

U.S. Treasury yields fell as investors started to price in the Fed’s dovish interest rate outlook amid an uncertain global economic outlook.

“Yields are consolidating around levels that are more consistent with the new position at the Fed which is … it is effectively on hold at least in the next six months,” said John Herrmann, rates strategist at MUFG Securities in New York.

Benchmark U.S. 10-year notes last rose 7/32 in price to yield 2.6983 percent, from 2.724 percent late Monday.

U.S. crude fell 0.24 percent to $54.43 per barrel and Brent was last at $62.60, up 0.14 percent on the day.

(Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Saqib Iqbal Ahmed in New York, Marc Jones in London; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

U.S. stocks attempt rebound

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 26, 2018. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

By Medha Singh

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks were attempting a modest rebound on Wednesday, boosted by technology shares and an Amazon-led jump in retailers, following four sessions of steep losses that pushed the S&P 500 and Dow Industrials near bear market territory.

After a strong start, the S&P and Dow swung between gains and losses. At its session low, the S&P hit a fresh 20-month low and came within two points of entering bear market territory, measured by a drop of more than 20 percent from a closing high.

The gains were led by technology stocks, which rose 1.49 percent. Their 9.2 percent slump in the past four sessions was the steepest among the 11 major S&P sectors, while the S&P 500 tumbled 7.7 percent.

Amazon.com Inc jumped 4.02 percent after reporting a “record-breaking” season. The stock was giving the biggest boost to the S&P and Nasdaq and led the consumer discretionary index up 1.49 percent.

But investors anxieties were far from gone. President Donald Trump renewed his attack on the Federal Reserve on Christmas, blaming it for the market slump.

Trump also said the U.S. government shutdown, now in its fifth day, would last until his demand for funds to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border is met.

A little over 2,100 stocks on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq hit 52-week lows. That compares with at least 2,600 stocks breaching new lows in the past three sessions.

“The market doesn’t look so healthy. The concerns are government shutdown, the economy, the President – what time is he going to tweet out about Federal Reserve,” said Larry Benedict, founder of the Opportunistic Trader in Boca Raton, Florida.

“We’re seeing the same thing recently and it’s not really good. It opens up every day and it’s met by selling and it ends nearer the low or on the low than the high. For the market to make a bottom, you need a bit of capitulation or panic bottom.”

The S&P was up 24.41 points, or 1.04 percent, at 2,375.51, at 11:37 a.m. ET, a day after the Christmas holiday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 196.31 points, or 0.90 percent, at 21,988.51 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 98.42 points, or 1.59 percent, at 6,291.34.

Eight of the 11 S&P sectors were higher, with the defensive utilities. SPLRCU real estat and consumer staples flat to lower.

Energy stocks rose 1.8 percent as crude oil prices rebounded.

Retailers jumped 3.14 percent, led by Amazon after a Mastercard report showed U.S. holiday sales were the strongest in six years.

The heavy-weight FAANG group, Facebook Inc, Amazon, Apple Inc, Netflix Inc and Alphabet Inc, rose between 1 percent and 4 percent.

The S&P ended Monday 19.8 percent below its all-time closing high, with roughly three-fourths of its stocks already in a bear market.

The Dow finished Monday 18.9 percent lower than its closing high. The Nasdaq is already in bear market, along with the Dow Jones Transport Average and small-cap Russell 2000 index.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.70-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.89-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded no new 52-week highs and 194 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded five new highs and 455 new lows.

(Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)

Wall St. hits fresh year-lows on threat of government shutdown, slowing growth

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., December 21, 2018. REUTERS/Bryan R Smith

By Medha Singh

(Reuters) – Wall Street fell in volatile trading on Friday, after a few failed attempts at a rally, led by a drop in technology and other high-growth sectors, while defensive stocks rose amid concerns of slowing growth and a looming government shutdown.

The three major indexes swung between losses and gains of more than 1 percent as fragile investor nerves were tested by news of turmoil in Washington and soothing comments from an influential Federal Reserve official.

The S&P 500, already on pace for its worst December since the Great Depression, hit its lowest since August 2017. The Dow fell to its lowest since October 2017, while the Nasdaq sank to a 15-month low, toying with bear market territory for the second day in a row.

The defensive consumer staples, utilities and real estate sectors logged gains of 0.1 percent to 0.77 percent, while all the other eight S&P sectors declined.

“Investors are looking for cover. Within equities, investors are certainly gravitating towards the traditionally defensive segments of the market,” said Mike Loewengart, vice-president of investment strategy at E*TRADE Financial in New York.

The technology index sank 1.54 percent, while communication services, which houses high-growth names such as Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc, dropped 2.2 percent.

President Donald Trump said there was a very good chance a government funding bill, which included funding for a wall along Mexico border, would not pass the Senate. Those worries were compounded by the sudden resignation of U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

“I think it’s a confluence of all the known issues that the investors have been digesting for the last few weeks. We have the prospect of a government shutdown today. We have more shakeups within the Trump administration,” Loewengart said.

The markets got a lift earlier after New York Fed President John Williams said on CNBC the central bank is open to reassessing its views and listening to market signals that the economy could fall short of expectations.

Williams’ comments come after the Fed said on Wednesday it would largely stick to its plan to keep raising interest rates, spooking investors already grappling with mounting evidence of slowing growth and triggering the slide on Wall Street.

At 1:20 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 169.07 points, or 0.74 percent, at 22,690.53, the S&P 500 was down 24.57 points, or 1.00 percent, at 2,442.85 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 127.58 points, or 1.95 percent, at 6,400.83.

Adding to the mix was “quadruple-witching,” when options on stocks and indexes as well as futures on indexes and stocks expire, tending to raise volumes.

Helping stanch the bleeding on Friday was Nike Inc, which jumped 6.2 percent after the company’s quarterly results beat Wall Street estimates on strength in North America. The stock was the biggest driver of gains on the Dow and S&P.

The three main Wall Street indexes are already in correction territory, having fallen more than 10 percent from their record closing highs. They are closing in on bear market territory, which is marked when an index closes more than 20 percent below its closing high.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 2.52-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 3.32-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P index recorded no new 52-week highs and 102 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded four new highs and 659 new lows.

(Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

China confident on U.S. trade pact, Trump cites Xi’s ‘strong signals’

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump takes part in a welcoming ceremony with China's President Xi Jinping in Beijing, China, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

By John Ruwitch

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China expressed confidence on Wednesday that it can reach a trade deal with the United States, a sentiment echoed by U.S. President Donald Trump a day after he warned of more tariffs if the two sides could not resolve their differences.

The remarks, by the Chinese Commerce Ministry, follow a period of relative quiet from Beijing after Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping reached a temporary truce in their trade war at a meeting over dinner in Argentina on Saturday.

In a brief statement, the ministry said China would try to work quickly to implement specific items already agreed upon, as both sides “actively promote the work of negotiations within 90 days in accordance with a clear timetable and roadmap”.

“We are confident in implementation,” it said, calling the latest bilateral talks “very successful”.

Trump, in a post on Twitter, linked Beijing’s silence to officials’ travels and said he thought Xi had been sincere during their weekend meeting to hammer out progress over trade.

“Very strong signals being sent by China once they returned home from their long trip, including stops, from Argentina. Not to sound naive or anything, but I believe President Xi meant every word of what he said at our long and hopefully historic meeting. ALL subjects discussed!” Trump wrote on Wednesday.

The U.S. president a day earlier had said the ceasefire could be extended but warned tariffs would be back on the table if the talks failed and that he would only accept a “real deal” with China.

China’s Foreign Ministry referred specific questions to the Commerce Ministry, which is due to hold its weekly news briefing on Thursday in Beijing.

“We hope the two working teams from both sides can, based on the consensus reached between the two countries’ leaders, strengthen consultations, and reach a mutually beneficial agreement soon,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters.

The threat of further escalation in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies has loomed large over financial markets and the global economy for much of the year, and investors initially greeted the ceasefire with relief.

The mood has quickly soured, however, on skepticism that the two sides can reach a substantive deal on a host of highly divisive issues within the 90-day negotiating period, and markets continued to slide on Wednesday in part from confusion over the ceasefire’s lack of detail.

Failure would raise the specter of a major escalation in the trade battle, with fresh U.S. tariff action and Chinese retaliation possibly as early as March.

The White House has said China had committed to start buying more American products and lifting tariff and non-tariff barriers immediately while beginning talks on structural changes with respect to forced technology transfers and intellectual property protection.

Sources told Reuters that Chinese oil trader Unipec plans to resume buying U.S. crude by March after the Xi-Trump deal reduced the risk of tariffs on those imports. China’s crude oil imports from the U.S. had ground to a halt.

MARKETS DOWN

Global financial markets sank to one-week lows on Wednesday amid the renewed trade concerns, extending Tuesday’s slide.

U.S. markets were closed on Wednesday to observe former President George H.W. Bush’s death, but the effect of Wall Street’s turmoil the previous day was felt in Europe and Asia with the benchmark Shanghai stock index closing down 0.6 percent.

“Narrow agreements and modest concessions in the ongoing trade dispute will not bridge the wide gulf in their respective economic, political and strategic interests,” Moody’s Investors Service said in a report that predicted U.S.-China relations “will remain contentious”.

Officials from the United States and a number of other major economies have often criticized China for its slow approach to negotiations and not following through on commitments.

China has said comparatively little about the Trump-Xi agreement after senior Chinese officials briefed the media following the meeting, and U.S. and Chinese accounts of what the deal entails have sometimes differed.

“Officials now face the difficult task of fleshing out a deal that is acceptable to the Chinese but also involves significant enough concessions not to be torpedoed by the China hawks in the Trump administration,” Capital Economics said in a note this week, adding that higher tariffs could simply be delayed.

A Chinese official told Reuters that officials were “waiting for the leaders to return” before publicizing details.

President Xi and his most senior officials are due back in China on Thursday, having visited Panama and Portugal since leaving Argentina.

On Wednesday, the Global Times tabloid, which is run by the Chinese Communist Party’s main newspaper, said the Trump administration’s statements about the deal – including the agreement that China would buy $1.2 trillion in additional U.S. goods – were designed to highlight or even exaggerate facets of the deal that benefited the United States.

“It will be a win-win situation if a deal is realized. But if not, more fights and talks will continue alternately for a long while. Chinese society should maintain a calm attitude,” it said.

(Reporting by John Ruwitch and Wang Jing in Shanghai, Philip Wen in Beijing and Makini Brice in Washington; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kim Coghill and Steve Orlofsky)

Special Report: Spiders, leaking pipes, sewage and fees – the other side of renting from Wall Street

A protester stands outside Blackstone's headquarters in Santa Monica, California, U.S. October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Michelle Conlin

By Michelle Conlin

ESPARTO, California (Reuters) – The rental home seemed so beautiful when McKayla Ferreira first laid eyes on it. The roof had three gables, fruit trees grew in the backyard, and the front porch gleamed with a fresh coat of paint.

Then Ferreira moved in.

First, she noticed water leaking through the bathroom and kitchen ceilings. Then she found a furry black mold spreading across the walls and raw sewage sluicing through the crawl space. Worst, to her, were the black widow spiders swarming her kitchen cupboards and linen closets. “Those spiders were so big you could hear them,” Ferreira said. “They sounded like fingernails scraping a table.”

Ferreira called her landlord, Invitation Homes Inc, a creation of private equity giant Blackstone Group. The spiders were a “housekeeping issue,” the company representative told her, and she should “clean the place up.” Invitation Homes wasn’t enthusiastic about fixing the leaks, either. Two months passed before it sent someone to cut through the ceiling and fix the pipes, Ferreira said. Then the company took seven more months to patch it all up.

By the time the next tenants, Jennifer and Mike White, settled into the house on Craig Street, the spiders had been joined by colonies of roaches and ants, the couple said.

Whitney Hurst stands in front of the house that she rents from Invitation Homes in Esparto, California, U.S. April 24, 2018. REUTERS/Fred Greav

Whitney Hurst stands in front of the house that she rents from Invitation Homes in Esparto, California, U.S. April 24, 2018. REUTERS/Fred Greaves

After Whitney Hurst and her family moved into the property last year, Hurst said, she immediately called in a work order for a long list of complaints, including leaky pipes, vermin and a broken garage door that nearly fell on her children. She said the repairman who showed up to fix one of the leaks told her that he didn’t have the right wrench for the job and to “have your husband fix it.”

“I have given up calling them,” Hurst said, sitting in a lawn chair in her driveway, while her two boys, ages 3 and 9, played hide-and-seek inside. “I mean, there are spiders in my kids’ toys.”

An Invitation Homes spokeswoman acknowledged that the house had some problems when Ferreira rented it, including roof and plumbing leaks and “a spider issue.” The company said it compensated Ferreira $887.30 for maintenance and utility billing issues caused by the plumbing leak, plus two weeks’ rent. It said its records show that other issues with subsequent tenants have been “minimal” – termites and a problem with the heating and cooling system and that they were addressed.

Invitation Homes pitches itself as a singular landlord providing unprecedented ease and comfort for renters of its tens of thousands of single-family homes. But in interviews with scores of the company’s tenants in neighborhoods across the United States, the picture that emerges isn’t as much one of exceptional service as it is one of leaky pipes, vermin, toxic mold, nonfunctioning appliances and months-long waits for repairs.

Tenants also complain about excessive rent increases and fees that can add up to hundreds of dollars a year. In a proposed class-action lawsuit filed in May in the U.S. District Court for Northern California, renters accuse the company of “fee-stacking.” They allege that Invitation Homes charges tenants $95 if their rent is one minute late – even if the late payment is due to the company’s own nonfunctioning online payment portal – and then files an eviction notice to add more fees, penalties and legal costs if the tenant wants to stay in the home.

Invitation Homes filed a motion on July 20 to dismiss the case, saying the suit did not substantiate that the company’s fees were “unfair” and that the plaintiff lacked standing to assert the claims on behalf of tenants nationwide.

This is far from the alluring vision of life in a rental home that Invitation Homes has promoted since Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity firm, built the company on the wreckage of the foreclosure crisis.

As a Blackstone vehicle, Invitation Homes led Wall Street’s charge into the single-family-home rental business, snapping up houses at fire-sale prices. After its merger, last November with Starwood Waypoint Homes, another private-equity-backed foray into the market, Invitation Homes became the largest landlord of single-family homes in the United States by the number of rental units.

Today, Invitation Homes manages 82,000 properties, most of them entry-level three- and four-bedroom houses in 17 metropolitan areas concentrated in the Sun Belt. Its portfolio – though still less than one percent of the overall single-family rental market – is 58 percent larger than that of its nearest competitor, American Homes 4 Rent.

PROMOTING THE GOOD LIFE

With its vast resources, Dallas, Texas-based Invitation Homes boasts that it has revolutionized the business of managing single-family rental homes and the experience of living in them. In a traditionally fusty mom-and-pop business, it says in marketing materials, it has created a uniquely “worry free” living environment that promises “peace of mind” with “exceptional resident services,” including “24/7 emergency maintenance.”

Chief Operating Officer Charles Young disputed tenant allegations of slumlord-like behavior. He noted that Invitation Homes serves hundreds of thousands of customers a year and that in internal company surveys, those tenants give the company 4.32 out of 5 stars. “From time to time, things happen,” Young said in an interview. “But when there’s an issue, we work hard to resolve it as quickly as we can.”

Affordable-housing advocates, real estate professionals and other critics of Wall Street’s push into the rental market say the tenant complaints suggest that rapid growth has stretched Invitation Homes’ ability to manage its properties. They also assert that there’s a deeper problem: Invitation Homes, like some of its Wall Street-backed peers, adheres to a business model that pressures it to lean hard on tenants to satisfy investors.

These companies have financed their growth by selling billions of dollars in bonds – the rental-market equivalent of the mortgage-backed securities that led to the financial crisis – to pension funds and other big institutions. Industry critics say that to keep payments to bond investors rolling, companies like Invitation Homes must minimize maintenance costs and maximize rents and fees.

“We see securitization of rental income as highly problematic,” said Kevin Stein, deputy director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for affordable housing. Among other things, he said, it “pits Wall Street investors against Invitation tenants.”

Among those tenants is Contrell Wethersby in Atlanta, who told Reuters she had to go for more than a year without heat or a functioning refrigerator, stove, microwave or garage door – not to mention having to endure a leaky ceiling and black mold.

Invitation Homes said it is committed to operating in accordance with all federal, state and local housing laws. It said its records showed that Wethersby’s issues did not persist for any significant length of time and that work crews had trouble scheduling with her. The company did not provide its records for Wethersby or any other tenants.

Some renters, like Willie Jean Brister in Los Angeles, have seen their rent increase by as much as 50 percent over three years. During that time, Brister has filed work orders for an exterminator and repairs on a bathtub, faucets, bathroom door, cabinet doors, fence, hot water and garbage disposal – all of them reviewed by Reuters on the company’s web portal. The grandmother with five children in the house said the portal keeps saying “ ‘work completed,’ but the work is never completed. You get worn out, like you are paying all this rent and not getting any services.”

Others, like Heather Tolaro, said they and their children became ill from toxic mold in their houses. Tolaro sued Invitation Homes in federal court in Illinois, alleging that the company refused to acknowledge or fix the problem. The case was settled for undisclosed terms.

Rosa D’Amico said that after one heavy rain, she watched as water poured into her Chicago rental home, destroying much of her personal property. The house, stinking of sewage, was uninhabitable. Invitation Homes eventually agreed for D’Amico and her family to move to a different house, but she said she had to pay the $1,800 bill for the move. Then that house flooded.

“It was poop water, sewer water, so I had to throw everything out,” D’Amico said. “And they never paid me a penny.” She now lives in a rental nearby.

The company said it was pleased to continue to serve the Bristers. It said its records show that all the repairs Brister had requested were made, to which Brister responded: “They patch things, they don’t fix things.”

It declined to comment on Tolaro’s case, citing the confidential settlement. As for D’Amico, Invitation Homes confirmed that the first house “suffered water damage.” It described the problem with the second house as an “odor” resulting from dry traps in the sink, floor and laundry drains, all of which were “serviced.”

Invitation Homes went public in February 2017. Blackstone still owns a 42 percent stake, valued at $5.1 billion. Blackstone is now in the process of buying a majority stake in the financial-services division of Thomson Reuters Corp, owner of Reuters News, in a deal valued at $20 billion. The transaction is expected to close in late summer. Blackstone and its chief executive officer, Stephen Schwarzman, declined to comment for this article.

NO OTHER CHOICE

In the interview, Invitation Homes COO Young said that rather than putting the squeeze on renters, the company’s business model gives families the “optionality and freedom” to live in the kinds of good homes in good school districts near good jobs that they may not be able to afford to buy. “We are providing a housing option that didn’t exist before,” he said.

He rejected assertions that the company skimps on repairs and maintenance to support payouts to investors. “In the consumer business, we know things are not always spot on,” he said. “We ultimately are trying to do the right thing by our communities and for our residents to provide the service we can live up to.”

Young also reiterated the company’s assertion that its investments in renovations and property upkeep have helped foreclosure-ravaged neighborhoods recover, and that 70 percent of its tenants renew their leases.

At Reuters’ request, the company provided the names of five satisfied renters. Two responded, saying they were pleased with the company. One of them, Melissa Grant of Atlanta, said Invitation Homes was an “awesome company” for, among other things, making homes “available to families like me who are in the military and need to move around a lot.” The other three tenants did not respond to repeated phone messages.

Some tenants told Reuters they renewed not because they loved their rentals, but because they felt they had to: The company owns so much of the available housing in their neighborhoods that they had no alternatives if they wanted to keep their kids in the same school, or remain close to jobs or relatives. And moving itself is a big expense.

“You can’t just jump up and move with children,” Brister said.

While Invitation Homes’ portfolio represents less than one percent of single-family rental homes nationwide, the figure can be much higher in markets where the company’s inventory is concentrated. In some neighborhoods in California, for example, Invitation Homes owns as much as 25 percent of single-family rentals, according to an analysis of Census and property data by Maya Abood, a former researcher with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Urban Planning Program who co-authored a recent study titled “Wall Street Landlords Turn American Dream into American Nightmare.”

Invitation Homes has been raising rents by as much as an average of 10 percent a year in places like Oakland, California – nearly double the norm in that market – according to the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), an advocacy group. At the same time, the company has been adding to the types of fees it charges tenants – not just for late payments, but for things like rent paid on debit cards, which incurs a $30 charge.

Fees have helped lift earnings by 20 to 30 percent a year. In a recent earnings call, the company attributed rising profits in part to its “system” to “track resident delinquency on a daily basis.” This system allows the company to start charging fees and penalties the minute a tenant fails to pay on time.

The company’s stock price has risen about 11 percent since last year’s initial public offering. Wall Street analysts have almost uniformly rated the stock a “buy.”

Analysts’ optimism reflects, in part, that while scores of federal, state and local rules protect homebuyers when taking out a mortgage and renters in multi-unit apartment buildings, few protections exist for tenants of single-family homes, housing lawyers and affordable-housing advocates said.

“Allowing hedge funds and private equity firms to speculate on housing with little-to-no public oversight or regulation puts families at greater risk of unfair rent increases and evictions, and threatens the right to housing itself,” Abood said.

A December 2016 Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta analysis found that Wall Street landlords are far more likely to file eviction notices than mom-and-pop landlords. It said Colony Starwood – as Starwood Waypoint was known until shortly before the merger with Invitation Homes – filed eviction notices on more than 30 percent of tenants, while Invitation Homes filed notices on nearly 15 percent. The strongest predictor of whether a tenant would get an eviction notice was if the tenant was African-American, the Atlanta Fed said.

The analysis didn’t specify which companies were responsible for the eviction notices disproportionately filed on African-Americans. Invitation Homes said it treats all residents equally. The company spokesperson noted that an eviction notice is a “procedural step” in a landlord’s effort to collect rent, and that “the vast majority of those who received eviction notices ultimately were resolved without the resident being put out of their home.”

In California, groups of Invitation Homes tenants, organized by ACCE, have stormed the offices of Blackstone three times to demand an end to what they say are the business’s worst practices, such as forgoing repairs and hiking rents.

Last October, more than three dozen renters of homes across Los Angeles burst through the front door of Blackstone’s headquarters in Santa Monica, shaking noisemakers, honking sirens and chanting through megaphones: “Hey, Blackstone, shame on you,” “Slumlord,” and, “You being evicted, Blackstone!”

Blackstone executives rushed out of the building through the emergency exits and the back door.

On office desks, the tenants left letters addressed to Blackstone CEO Schwarzman, asking for a moratorium on rent increases, an end to “outrageous fees,” proper maintenance on homes and a meeting with Blackstone executives.

After 20 minutes, security personnel threw them out.

An Invitation Homes spokesperson said the company got back to all the renters about their complaints.

Lupita Gonzalez, the ACCE organizer, said: “We never heard anything. We never heard back.” Reuters was able to contact four of the renters who participated in the October protest, all of whom said they never heard from the company.

KEEPING INVESTORS HAPPY

The business of being landlord of a single-family home was for years a small, local affair. But after the 2008 financial crisis, Wall Street saw an opportunity: Buy houses in bulk in “strike zones,” industry parlance for high foreclosure neighborhoods with good schools, well-maintained transportation systems and healthy job growth.

Then the firms could rent the properties to the kinds of families that would normally buy – householders who are on average 39 years old with young children and an average income of $100,000 or more. Today, nine big Wall Street firms collectively own more than 200,000 single-family homes in 13 states.

Invitation Homes says it spent an average of $200,000 per house to build its portfolio, and $22,000 each on renovations and repairs. To pay for all of that, it pioneered a new asset class, so-called single-family rental securities, or SFRs. Since 2013, Wall Street landlords have sold more than $15 billion of the bonds. As supply has tightened and prices risen in real estate markets, Invitation Homes has slowed expansion of its portfolio. Now, it largely rolls over existing bonds, paying investors out of rent and fees from tenants.

In September, the government-sponsored entity Fannie Mae lent its blessing to this new market, guaranteeing the refinancing on a $1 billion Invitation Homes rental-backed bond.

That imprimatur prompted more than 25 groups – affordable-housing advocates like the Community Home Lenders Association and rival business groups such as the National Association of Realtors – to complain to Fannie Mae’s overseer, the Federal Housing Finance Authority (FHFA), that the deal strayed from Fannie Mae’s stated mission of supporting home ownership. Invitation Homes’ business model, they said, risked pushing up rents and reducing the inventory of affordable homes.

Corinne Russell, spokesperson for the FHFA, said the agency had authorized such transactions to help Fannie Mae and its sibling agency, Freddie Mac, “understand the challenges and opportunities in the single-family rental market … and help FHFA assess what role, if any, the Enterprises should play in this market going forward.”

A spokesman for Fannie Mae said: “This transaction is a great opportunity to continue to serve the growing single-family rental market. Invitation Homes is a strong partner with deep experience managing a large volume of single-family rental properties.”

Just as Fannie Mae was lending its federally backed support to one of Invitation Homes’ bonds, regulators began looking into the securities.

At issue are the home valuations Invitation Homes relied on for its bonds. The higher the valuation, the higher the expected rent, and thus the more investors are willing to pay for the bonds.

To get a mortgage, homebuyers typically must have a licensed inspector conduct an appraisal of the house. To price its bonds, however, Invitation Homes relied on so-called broker price opinions, or BPOs. These less-expensive alternatives were provided mostly by outside firms using independent contractors who were not licensed appraisers.

Many of these contractors relied only on exterior views of the houses – no interior inspections – according to regulatory filings. The filings also indicate that the contractors were told to assume that the interiors had been remodeled to the standards advertised on the Invitation Homes website. Congress outlawed BPOs after the foreclosure crisis, but the ban doesn’t apply to institutional investors buying homes in bulk.

In September, Invitation Homes disclosed in a regulatory filing that it had received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission requesting documents and communications related to its securitizations. In its accompanying letter to Invitation Homes, the SEC said it was looking at the valuations the company relied on to price its bonds.

The SEC would not comment on the investigation, nor would Invitation Homes. In its regulatory filing, the company said: “The SEC letter indicates that its investigation is a fact-finding inquiry and does not mean that the SEC has a negative opinion of any person or security. We are cooperating with the SEC.”

A look inside the bond that Fannie Mae backed shows how Invitation Homes’ model is working. From each of the 7,204 houses bundled into the bond, the Fannie Mae prospectus shows, the company earned in 2016 an average monthly rent of $1,538 and $985 in annual “other income,” defined as fees for, among other things, “pets or cleaning.”

At the same time, the company spent an average of $1,142 a year on repairs, maintenance and turnover costs, based on the bond data. That’s less than the $3,100 a year Americans tend to spend on maintenance, repairs and improvements on houses of the same age as Invitation Homes’ portfolio, according to an analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey by BTIG equity analyst Ryan Gilbert.

The company said the $1,142 figure is “not representative” because it doesn’t include the $750 the company reserves per home for capital expenditures should the property need a “major system replacement.”

Five former employees said Invitation Homes routinely didn’t spend enough on repairs or hire enough contractors to get the job done. One former maintenance contractor said that he oversaw 2,000 homes scattered across one metropolis and that he couldn’t possibly keep up.

On a recent tour the company provided for Reuters in Atlanta, executives walked through a newly renovated four-bedroom house in a development called Legacy Court, where tenants have access to tennis courts, a pool, pocket parks and a community center.

The executives led Reuters on what they said was their standard walk-through prior to every rental, entailing inspection of 250 items.  A maintenance manager checked every knob, outlet, spout, latch, doorstop, lightbulb, blind and appliance. He ran the dishwasher, filled the tub and tested the garbage disposal. “We test, touch and feel everything, fixture by fixture, before renting out the house,” he said.

STILL RENTING

Income from the house with the black widow spiders on Craig Street in Esparto, California, is in the Fannie Mae-backed bond.

The house had been owned by the same couple for nearly 10 years before they lost it to foreclosure in 2012. For five months, the house sat empty. Then, in September 2012, property records show, Fannie Mae sold it to Blackstone for $173,000.

The following year, McKayla Ferreira moved in. Around the time she began noticing the spiders and the sewage, Blackstone was packaging the house’s rental income into one of its bonds.

Though the Fannie Mae bond does not break out address-level data, Reuters was able to identify the Craig Street house by cross-referencing the bond’s data with local property records, sales documents and other information.

The bond notes that Invitation Homes spent $370 in 2016 on maintenance and repairs for the Craig Street house. The company said costs associated with the house should also include lease turnover expenses – what a landlord spends to prepare a house for a new renter – which added $2,703 to 2016 expenses.

Ferreira said she paid her rent on time, but Invitation Homes often claimed it never received the money and staple-gunned eviction notices to her front door. It insisted she pay a 10 percent late fee, plus other penalties, on her $1,300-a-month rent – or lose her lease. Ferreira would send canceled checks to the company, only to watch the same scenario unfold the following month.

Invitation Homes acknowledged that when Ferreira was a tenant, the company was “in its infancy” and that some billing and receivables systems had “yet to be refined.” The company also said it reversed the charges and had established additional processes “to help prevent this from occurring in the future.”

Two subsequent renters said some billing errors continued. Invitation Homes said its records show no such issues.

All three families had hoped to save money while living on Craig Street for a down payment to buy a home. All said that fees and unexpected expenses ate into those savings.

Whitney Hurst and her family are still renting the house on Craig Street. The two previous tenants are renting from other landlords.

(Edited by John Blanton)

Wall Street edges higher as strong jobs data offsets trade worries

FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., June 28, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

By Sruthi Shankar and Savio D’Souza

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks edged higher on Friday on stronger-than-expected job growth in June, offsetting concerns from a trade war between the United States and China.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 213,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said, topping expectations of 195,000, while the unemployment rate rose from an 18-year low to 4.0 percent and average hourly earnings rose 0.2 percent.

The moderate wage growth could allay fears of a strong build-up in inflation pressures, keeping the Federal Reserve on a path of gradual interest rate increases.

“It was what the market wanted to see: more jobs created than expected, wage growth moderate and creating jobs where you want to see them … It’s not just creating jobs it’s creating careers,” said J.J. Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.

The strong jobs data follows the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting which showed policymakers discussed if recession lurked around the corner and expressed concerns trade tensions could hit an economy that by most measures looked strong.

Earlier stock futures were set for a more cautious start after the United States and China imposed tariffs on each other’s goods worth $34 billion, with Beijing accusing Washington of starting the “largest-scale trade war.”

President Donald Trump warned the United States may ultimately target over $500 billion worth of Chinese goods, but global markets remained broadly sanguine, though concerns about the conflict escalating capped appetite for risk.

“The expectation of things is always worse for the market than the reality,” said Kinahan. “We certainly have to pay attention to trade but it’s been expected for a long time.”

At 9:54 a.m. EDT the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 19.67 points, or 0.08 percent, at 24,337.07, the S&P 500 was up 4.26 points, or 0.16 percent, at 2,740.87 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 34.68 points, or 0.46 percent, at 7,621.10.

Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, led by a 0.8 percent jump in the S&P healthcare index.

Biogen jumped 17.8 percent after the company and Japanese drugmaker Eisai Co said the final analysis of a mid-stage trial of their Alzheimer’s drug showed positive results.

Among the decliners were industrials, energy and materials indexes.

Boeing, the single largest U.S. exporter to China, slipped 0.7 percent and Caterpillar dropped 1.3 percent.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor index, which is made up of chipmakers most of whom rely on China for a substantial chunk of revenue, dropped 0.4 percent.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.65-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 2.07-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&

P index recorded 10 new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 67 new highs and nine new lows.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Savio D’Souza in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

U.S. Stock Markets Bounce Wall Street recovers after historic falls

A trader reacts on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, U.S., February 6, 2018.

By Tanya Agrawal

(Reuters) – U.S. stock markets bounced after a torrid opening on Tuesday, bargain-hunters and gains for Apple pushing the tech-heavy Nasdaq and the Dow Jones Industrial Average into positive territory after two days of heavy losses.

Both the S&P 500 and the Dow sank more than 4 percent on Monday, their biggest falls since August 2011, as concerns over rising U.S. interest rates and government bond yields hit record-high valuations of stocks.

New York’s three main indexes sank as much as 2 percent on the opening bell but they quickly moved back into positive territory.

An almost 2 percent gain for Apple was at the heart of an almost half percent gain for the Nasdaq Composite.

“Daily drops of 3 percent or more have been buying opportunities for the S&P 500 post financial crisis,” said Lori Calvasina, head of U.S. equity strategy at RBC Capital Markets.

At 9:49 a.m. ET (1449 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.25 percent to 24,406.14. The S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent to 2,654.25 and the Nasdaq 0.4 percent to 6,993.47.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Patrick Graham)

Wall St. set to rise at open as tax reform enters last lap

Wall St. set to rise at open as tax reform enters last lap

By Rama Venkat Raman

(Reuters) – Wall Street was poised to open higher on Thursday, aided by gains for banking shares and news that the Republicans’ tax code overhaul should face final votes in Congress before the year-end.

A final bill could be formally unveiled on Friday, with decisive votes expected next week in both chambers.

On Wednesday, Republicans in the Senate and the House reached a deal on final tax legislation, paving the way for final votes next week on a package that would slash the corporate tax rate to 21 percent.

“We have a pretty positive background, investors are focused on the tax deal that they are closed to an agreement between the House and the Senate,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.

“It will take some time to go through the details, what that means for specific companies but it’s consistent with the general positive tone.”

Traders also focused on a $52.4 billion stock deal between Walt Disney <DIS.N> and Twenty-First Century Fox <FOXA.O>.

Shares of media baron Rupert Murdoch’s Fox fell marginally in choppy trading after Walt Disney agreed to buy the Fox’s film, television and international businesses. Disney shares were also down 0.9 percent.

Goldman Sachs <GS.N>, JPMorgan <JPM.N>, Wells Fargo <WFC.N> and Bank of America <BAC.N> rose between 0.52 percent and 0.86 percent ahead of market open.

Shares of big banks recovered early in the day from an initial decline after the Federal Reserve raised rates by 25 basis points but kept its outlook for 2018 and 2019 unchanged.

At 8:34 a.m. ET (1334 GMT), Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 32 points, or 0.13 percent, with 8,450 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis <ESc1> were up 1.5 points, or 0.06 percent, with 69,766 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis <NQc1> were up 6 points, or 0.09 percent, on volume of 7,313 contracts.

U.S. retail sales increased more than expected in November as the holiday shopping season got off to a brisk start, pointing to sustained strength in the economy.

A Commerce Department report showed retail sales rose 0.8 percent in November, while economists polled by Reuters has forecast a 0.3 percent rise.

Among other big movers, Express Scripts <ESRX.O> gained about 2 percent after pharmacy benefit manager forecast full-year 2018 earnings that topped analysts’ expectations.

U.S.-listed shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals <VRX.N> fell 4.2 percent after JPMorgan cut the stock’s rating to ‘underweight’.

Israel-based drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical’s <TEVA.N> shares soared 15 percent after the company announced job cuts, asset sale and dividend suspension in an overhaul to pay back debt.

(Reporting by Rama Venkat Raman in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

Lucky 13? Stocks score longest run of monthly gains on record

Lucky 13? Stocks score longest run of monthly gains on record

By Marc Jones

LONDON (Reuters) – A dive in high-flying U.S. tech stocks on worries their boom may have peaked left investors wondering on Thursday whether the longest global equity bull run in living memory might be starting to splutter.

The caution was sparked by another Wall Street wobble involving a rotation from tech to financials which came just as the near 9-year global rally prepared to notch up another impressive milestone.

The world’s broadest equity gauge – the MSCI all-country index – was on course to finish November with its 13th straight monthly gain on Thursday – the longest winning streak in the index’s 30-year history. Lucky for some.

Though the celebrations were muffled by the tech problems – Samsung and China stocks had also taken another tumble in Asian trading [.SS] – the mood improved again in Europe.

Germany’s Dax <.GDAX> and France’s CAC 40 <.FCHI> both inched up for a third day, and though London’s FTSE <.FTSE> lagged as hopes of a breakthrough in Brexit negotiations pushed the pound higher again, Wall Street futures <ESc1> pointed to U.S. rebound later. [.N] [GBP/]

The latest Reuters global asset poll showed the majority of investors expect shares to keep rising. Robeco strategist Peter van der Welle was one of those, despite noting the market was “playing in extra time”.

“In the absence of a near-term recession trigger, current stretched equity valuations do yet not instil enough fear to change overall market direction,” he said.

Possibly feeding the tech concerns was a Morgan Stanley report earlier this week that the “super-cycle” in memory chip demand looks likely to peak soon.

Shares of Amazon.com <AMZN.O>, Apple <AAPL.O>, Google parent Alphabet <GOOGL.O> Facebook <FB.O> and Netflix <NFLX.O> slid between 2 percent and 5.5 percent on Wednesday. [.N] Asia’s bellwether Samsung <005930.KS> then slumped 4.3 percent to two-month lows.

Tech nerves were not just confined to stocks. Rocketing cryptocurrency Bitcoin <BTC=BTSP> dropped a cool $1,000 to a low of $9,250 before spending European hours pinballing between $9,700 and $10,100.

For perspective, though, the Nasdaq index is still up 26.8 percent so far this year, roughly 7 percentage points more than the MSCI world <.MIWD00000PUS>. For Bitcoin it is a mind-boggling 950 percent. http://tmsnrt.rs/2zJqD6m

“It is true that if you look at the world’s semiconductor sales on chart, their year-on-year growth appears to be peaking out,” said Hiroshi Watanabe, an economist at Sony Financial Holdings. “But if you look at what’s driving demand, it’s not just smart phones and actually a lot of things.”

DOLLAR IN THE DOLDRUMS

In the more mainstream FX markets, the U.S. dollar climbed to 112.25 yen <JPY=>, held its ground versus the euro <EUR> but fell to a two-month low of $1.3480 to the resurgent pound <GBP=>. Measured against major peers the dollar is headed for biggest monthly drop since July. [FRX]

The U.S. Senate took a step on Wednesday toward passage of tax legislation that is a top White House priority, setting up a likely decisive but finely-balanced vote later this week.

Investors also seem to have grown cautious about the outlook of the world’s biggest economy and there are growing signs that it certainly won’t be the only country raising interest rates.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management global head of rates David Tan predicted on Thursday that there will be some 1,000 rate hikes globally over the next decade.

“The current period of economic expansion has therefore been extraordinarily long, almost 10 years and counting, but we know that the days of super low global central bank rates are in the process of coming to an end,” he said.

Borrowing costs in Germany, the euro zone’s benchmark bond issuer, rose to their highest in just over two weeks. The 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield climbed too, reaching 2.3859 percent <US10YT=RR> to near this month’s high of 2.414 percent.

There was no market response after U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Carnegie Mellon University professor Marvin Goodfriend, viewed as a policy hawk, to be a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

Oil meanwhile moved higher again as OPEC meet in Vienna to debate an extension of the group’s supply-cut agreement.

While the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and key non-member Russia look set to prolong oil supply cuts until the end of 2018, they have signaled that they may review the deal when they meet again in June if the market overheats.

U.S. crude futures <CLc1> traded at $57.72 per barrel in European trade, up 1.4 percent, while Brent futures <LCOc1> rose 0.7 percent to just over $64 a barrel. [O/R]

(Reporting by Marc Jones; editing by Mark Heinrich)

U.S. consumer prices edge up; retail sales unexpectedly increase

U.S. consumer prices edge up; retail sales unexpectedly increase

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer prices barely rose in October as the boost to gasoline prices from hurricane-related disruptions to Gulf Coast oil refineries was unwound, but rising rents and healthcare costs pointed to a gradual buildup of underlying inflation.

Low inflation is, however, helping to underpin consumer spending. Other data on Wednesday showed an unexpected increase in retail sales last month as heavy price discounting by automobile manufacturers lifted purchases of motor vehicles.

Rising retail sales and steadily firming underlying price pressures likely will keep the Federal Reserve on course to raise interest rates next month.

The Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index edged up 0.1 percent last month after jumping 0.5 percent in September. That lowered the year-on-year increase in the CPI to 2.0 percent from 2.2 percent in September. The increases were in line with economists’ expectations.

Gasoline prices fell 2.4 percent after surging 13.1 percent in September, which was the largest gain since June 2009. September’s jump in gasoline prices followed Hurricane Harvey, which struck Texas in late August and disrupted production at oil refineries in the Gulf Coast region.

Food prices were unchanged after nudging up 0.1 percent in September. Excluding the volatile food and energy components, consumer prices rose 0.2 percent in October amid a pickup in the cost of rental accommodation, healthcare costs, tobacco and a range of other goods and services.

The so-called core CPI gained 0.1 percent in September. October’s increase lifted the year-on-year increase in the core CPI to 1.8 percent. The year-on-year core CPI had increased by 1.7 percent for five straight months.

The slight pickup in the monthly core CPI could offer some comfort to Fed officials amid concerns that stubbornly low inflation might reflect not only temporary factors but developments that could prove more persistent.

The Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy, has consistently undershot the U.S. central bank’s 2 percent target for more than five years. The Fed has lifted borrowing costs twice this year and has projected three rate increases in 2018.

Prices of U.S. Treasuries fell and the U.S. dollar <.DXY> pared losses against a basket of currencies after the data. U.S. stock index futures extended losses.

RENTS, HEALTHCARE COSTS RISE

Last month, owners’ equivalent rent of primary residence climbed 0.3 percent, quickening after September’s 0.2 percent increase. The cost of hospital services increased 0.5 percent and prices for doctor visits rose 0.2 percent. There were also increases in prices for wireless phone services, airline fares, education and motor vehicle insurance.

Prices for used cars and trucks rose 0.7 percent, ending nine straight months of declines. New motor vehicle prices, however, fell for a second consecutive month as manufacturers resorted to deep discounting to eliminate an inventory overhang.

In a separate report on Wednesday, the Commerce Department said retail sales increased 0.2 percent last month. Data for September was revised to show sales jumping 1.9 percent, which was the largest gain since March 2015, rather than the previously reported 1.6 percent advance.

Retail sales increased 4.6 percent on an annual basis.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast that retail sales would be unchanged in October. The slowdown in retail sales last month from September’s robust pace largely reflected an unwinding of the boost to building materials and gasoline prices after recent hurricanes.

Receipts at auto dealerships increased 0.7 percent after soaring 4.6 percent in September, supported by the deep price discounting by manufacturers. Sales at gardening and building material stores fell 1.2 percent last month after surging 3.0 percent in September.

Receipts at service stations decreased 1.2 percent in October. That followed a 6.4 percent gain in September. Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales increased 0.3 percent last month after climbing 0.5 percent in September.

These so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product. Last month’s increase in core retail sales indicated a healthy pace of consumer spending at the start of the fourth quarter.

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, increased at a 2.4 percent annualized rate in the third quarter.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao)