AFP - President George W. Bush’s administration will propose sweeping new oversight powers for the Federal Reserve in a bid to avoid calamities like the current subprime crisis.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of KB Home plunged Friday morning after the homebuilder posted a wider-than-expected loss for the first quarter.
Soleil Securities Group analyst Anna E. Torma said KB Home’s results did not bode well for the coming quarter and were well below her estimated loss of $1.96 per share.
“Results indicated deteriorating conditions for […]

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Reuters - The leading U.S. housing agency has drafted a foreclosure prevention program that could work in tandem with plans created by leading Democratic lawmakers, but it still needs the blessing of the Bush administration, sources familiar with the plan said Thursday.

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BusinessWeek Online - Reports released Mar. 26 show that two key segments of the U.S. economy — housing and manufacturing — continue to take it on the chin amid the ongoing U.S. slowdown. The reports helped send major equity indexes lower on Mar. 26, with the Dow Jones industrial average down nearly 1% in late-morning […]

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Reuters - The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday took the unusual step of scheduling public hearings in Chicago and Los Angeles next month to get comments on the pros and cons of Bank of America Corp’s planned $4 billion acquisition of mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corp.
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AFP - Directors of distressed German business lender IKB faced furious shareholders Thursday who voiced anger over the management of one of the country’s biggest US subprime market victims.
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Question: I’ve spoken to a few home builders in the San Francisco Bay Area and they expect things to pick up in the second half of the year. But this is a different market than the rest of U.S. –Ander Vazquez, Marcus & Millichap.
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WASHINGTON - The economy nearly sputtered out at the end of the year and probably is faring even worse now amid continuing housing, credit and financial woes.
The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the gross domestic product, or GDP, increased at a feeble 0.6 percent annual rate from October through December. The reading, unchanged from […]

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