Monday Morning Cup of Coffee takes a look at news coming across the HousingWire weekend news desk, with more coverage to come on bigger issues.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., published an early happy birthday to the Dodd-Frank Act and the subsequent creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The former came about on July 21, 2010 and the CFPB came one year later.
And according to her blog on Medium, the words we should be looking for are “Thank you.”
Here are the best parts:
Americans no longer need to worry if their mortgages will explode, if they’ll be discriminated against when taking out a car loan, or, when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalizes its rules, if they will be trapped in a never-ending cycle of debt from predatory payday lenders.
The CFPB turns five this year and in that short amount of time has already returned more than $11.4 billion to over 25 million Americans who have been harmed.
When it comes to mortgages, credit cards and other consumer products, that kind of lax regulation is now a thing of the past. Americans know that they have Dodd-Frank to thank for that.
However, it’s doubtful the inception of Dodd-Frank will dominate the financial press.
According to Mike Schumacher, head of rate strategy at Wells Fargo, the democratic decision by Brits to leave the European Union will still be grabbing headlines.
While most of the bad news is likely past — the S&P regained losses, for example — the downgrade of Britain’s sovereign rating is not to be underestimated.
Here's Schumacher, in a note to clients:
Brexit still is the dominant topic in the financial world, and probably will “remain” so for quite a while. In our opinion, the major market moves resulting from the U.K. vote are nearly finished. We continue to use the U.S. downgrade in August 2011 as a guide. Treasury yields fell dramatically in the first few days after the downgrade and continued to decline for about a month. We doubt that U.S. and U.K. yields will fall much further, but expect markets to remain unusually volatile for another week or two.
Speaking of downgrade, did you see Bank of America also received a downgrade?
If not, no matter, investors still say it will be OK to invest long in the bank’s stock.
In a note from an analyst for Achilles Research on Seeking Alpha, the trend to support BofA will continue for some time.
As far as I am concerned the positives of an investment in Bank of America (steep margin of safety, new capital return plan including stock buybacks below accounting book value, solid job growth, a higher probability of a Fed interest rate hike in the near future) far outweigh the negatives (investment banking headwinds, credit cycle concerns). Further, an overwhelming number of analysts continue to recommend Bank of America to buy, with the consensus price target pegged at $17.69. As far as I am concerned, the latest downgrade is insignificant for existing shareholders of Bank of America.
But maybe you don’t want to invest in BofA. Looking for a different big bank to invest in?
According to Eli Inkrot of Sure Dividend, also published in Seeking Alpha, there is another bank that looks to be a bargain.
Can you guess it? Here are some clues.
- About 15% of all its net income comes from mortgages.
- It’s the only bank, to earn over $5 billion for 14 consecutive quarters.
- Its assets near $2 trillion, it employs nearly 270,000 team members, maintains 8,800 physical locations, 13,000 ATMs and a market capitalization well north of $200 billion.
For those who didn’t say Wells Fargo, you should definitely not be investing in the stock market.
For those who do, here is Inkrot’s reasoning.
At ~$46 per share, Wells Fargo looks like a bargain. Investors looking for exposure to the banking sector should consider Wells Fargo at current prices. It doesn't hurt that the stock is also one of Warren Buffett's largest holdings, and one of his highest yielding holdings as well.
The FDIC closed no banks this weekend. Have a great week, everyone!
