Morning Radar: Home Depot's mood up on builder confidence

May 24, 2013 forward to a friend update your profile subscribe to magazine

Morning Radar: Home Depot's mood up on builder confidence

HousingWire's Morning Radar provides a look at what's trending across media outlets nationwide.

Store chain Home Depot ($78.91 0%) and homebuilders seems to possess a co-dependent relationship. And luckily, one of them is in a good mood this week. A Citi ($50.53 0%) analyst quoted in Forbes magazine classified Home Depot stock as a 'buy' on Wednesday.

Apparently what sparked this vote of confidence is the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index, which shows homebuilder confidence at a four-year high. The index report shows homebuilder confidence rising from an index score of 25 to 29, a solid increase that is still below the preferred 50-plus level.

A score of 50 or above generally signifies a confident homebuilding market.

BofA in MBS court for years

Legal wrangling over the proposed $8.5 billion settlement of some of Bank of America ($13.21 0%) mortgage-backed securities liability could drag through the courts for years, a top appeals court judge said during arguments in the case, according to an article in Reuters.

The 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York is weighing whether last June's Bank of America accord, closely watched by other banks and bondholders, is a matter for federal court review or belongs in state court where it was first filed. The settlement should give BofA some breathing room on litigation stemming from its takeover of Countrywide in 2008.

According to the article, Robert Madden, a lawyer for about two dozen institutional investors with tens billions of dollars at stake in the settlement, said at the hearing the matter could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

— Kerri Panchuk

HousingWire Update
Publisher: Paul Jackson  | 469-893-1480
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