January 04, 2012
By Richard Barrington | MoneyRates.com Senior Financial Analyst, CFA
Just before Christmas, two announcements seemed to herald a recovery in the housing market. However, just as with all the inflatable Santas cluttering lawns in December, the air might be out of the hopes for housing recovery before we get far into the new year.
On December 21, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced that existing home sales had risen in November — up 4 percent over October’s figure, and up 12.2 percent year-over-year.
The next day, Freddie Mac announced a new record low for 30-year mortgage rates – 3.91 percent.
On paper, this could make it appear that the housing recovery is shaping up as planned: lower interest rates create new housing demand, which fuels a recovery in sales and housing prices.
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7.671 % Yield to Worst 2015 Call at par
Netflix (NFLX) bonds are one of our favorite bonds, and we appreciate the opportunity to buy it while the stock is showing such glaring weakness. Although this Netflix bond is only rated Ba2 by Moody’s and BB- by Standard & Poor’s, its underlying fundamentals exceed the stringent criteria that we here at Durig Capital use to find better high yielding bonds. Furthermore, this bond provides an ideal example of why we think the official rating agencies may occasionally be mistaken in their assessment of a company’s credit worthiness.
Netflix has recently issued approximately in $200 million in stock and $200 million more in zero coupon convertible bonds. Prior
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American Express Canada was honored with the 2011 Service Quality Award of Excellence for its customer service call centres, according to a recent press release on the American Express Canada website. The award recognizes the highest level of customer satisfaction among credit card companies not only in Canada, but in all of North America.
The Service Quality Award of Excellence is an annual award presented by Service Quality Measurement, “an industry-focused research firm that tracks, benchmarks and recognizes over 450 leading North American call centres.” Based on on over one million surveys of customers who have contacted a call centre, American Express Canada’s receipt of the award is a benchmark achievement.
Were honoured to be recognized by our own customers for providing outstanding value and service, says Andrew Carlton, General Manager and Vice President, World Service at American Express Canada
American Express Canada states it has offered exceptional customer service for 158 years. Like
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It’s usually a slow week in the financial sector between Christmas and New Years, but today GE Capital made a few waves by announcing that it was buying MetLife Bank. MetLife Bank, which consists of approximately $7.5 billion in U.S. deposits, is the onilne banking arm of the insurer MetLife. In the past, the bank has offered attractive rates on savings and especially CDs.
See: MetLife Bank Offering 12-Month CD at 4.15% APY
Its current 1.00% APY 12-month CD is competitive but not near the top of the best CD rates according to the BestCashCow rate tables.
It has been known for some time that MetLife wanted to divest the bank. Having a banking division opened MetLife to scrutiny from the Federal Reserve.
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This is a Key Bank CD rates January Review, 2012 that has some good news to report. While most of the CD rates from KeyBank have remained steady, the 10 year CD saw an increased in the APY it is returning when you are investing your money in that term. The amount of increase is from 0.15% to 0.25%.
The certificates of deposits are set up in a tiered format. The minimum deposit levels include $2,500, $10,000 and $25,000. The following rates are for those associated with an active checking account at KeyBank.
The current bank CD rates include the 6 month CD that is earning an APY of 0.20%, 0.20% and 0.20% respectfully.
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