A majority of the housing and mortgage finance stocks followed by HousingWire ended Monday in the red, sending a weak signal to the housing market about the final month of the year.
The HW 30 — HousingWire’s exclusive list of mortgage related firms — concluded the day down 0.49%.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce, construction spending during October 2013 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $908.4 billion, 0.8% above the September estimate of $901.2 billion. Furthermore, the October figure is 5.3% above the October 2012 estimate of $863.1 billion.
But despite the positive construction report, homebuilder stocks still finished down on the HW 30, with Lennar Corp. (LEN), Toll Brothers (TOL) and D.R. Horton (DHI) falling 1.65%, 1.7% and 2.85%, respectively.
Meanwhile, the industry was hit with a big settlement between Freddie Mac and Bank of America (BAC) Monday morning.
Freddie Mac clinched a $404 million deal with the mega bank over faulty loans allegedly sold to the government-sponsored enterprises.
"We continue to make very good progress in recovering funds that are due to the American taxpayer, as well as resolving Freddie Mac's legacy repurchase issues," said Freddie Mac CEO Donald Layton.
Bank of America’s stock came out relatively unscathed and fell only 0.57%.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) also closed down, falling 0.42%, while Wells Fargo (WFC) was one of the few stocks to rise, growing 0.36% by the end of the trading day.
Other major indices followed the same trend, with the Dow and S&P 500 both dropping 0.48% and 0.27%, respectively.
