Obsolete Certainty

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were slightly lower on Thursday ahead of data on weekly jobless claims and international trade.

American consumers are now defaulting on their mortgages in even greater numbers than they are walking away from credit card debt. According to FICO's® Score Trends Service, this is a phenomenon that is historically unique. FICO said the mortgage default risk for consumers with high FICO scores now exceeds their credit card default risk, even though most credit cards are unsecured credit and mortgages are secured by real estate. There is a parallel rise in mortgage delinquencies for these high scoring consumers. The company said that their analysis of trends in FICO scoring shows that recent repayment behavior has shifted significantly from what has historically been expected. In 2005 bankcard accounts were more than 3 times more likely to become seriously delinquent, that is 90+ days…(read more)

The U.S. Senate Wednesday approved a $149 billion package of jobless aid and tax breaks as Democrats continued efforts to bring down the 9.7 percent unemployment rate before the November congressional elections.

(Reuters) – Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.07 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.09 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.25 percent.

Commercial and multifamily mortgages continue to have the lowest rates of charge-offs of any loan types at banks and thrifts and perform better than the overall loan portfolios at those institutions according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). In response to what it referred to as a great deal of discussion and conjecture about those loans in recent months, MBA updated an earlier " DataNote " analysis of commercial and multifamily mortgage data from the 4th quarter of 2008 with data from the same period in 2009. The report states that 56 percent of the assets held by banks and thrifts at the end of 2009 consisted of loans and leases, a category that includes 1-4 family mortgages, home equity loans, credit cards and other consumer loans, commercial mortgages, multifamily mortgages…(read more)

DETROIT (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp has asked a Michigan appeals court to intervene to keep its top two U.S. executives from being grilled by lawyers for the family of a woman killed while driving a Camry in 2008.

LONDON (Reuters) – World stocks inched lower on Tuesday from the previous day’s six-week high and oil tumbled, while the yen rose broadly as investors grew cautious after a recent rally in riskier assets.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), American Bankers Association (ABA), and the American Financial Services Association (AFSA) joined with 11 state and local mortgage lending groups on Friday to send a letter to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development expressing concerns about the way in which HUD is proposing to implement the 2008 SAFE Act. The SAFE Act (Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing), was passed in July 2008 as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act. It directs states to adopt licensing and registration requirements for loan originators that meet minimum standards established by the act in lieu of HUD establishing nationwide standards. It also encourages the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and the American Association of Residential…(read more)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Technology shares pushed the Nasdaq higher on Monday on an otherwise flat day for stocks, led by BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and Cisco Systems.

Across the USA, municipalities, school districts, sewer systems and other tax-exempt debt issuers are ensnared in the derivatives mess. The New York Times explains.