Business

According to a new report from ATTOM Data Solutions published earlier today, vacant property rates are once again increasing in many markets across the country but perhaps not for the reasons you might think.  While so-called pre-foreclosure "zombie" properties have declined some 22% YoY, overall vacant property rates in 54% of the 149 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed by ATTOM actually increased due to, among other things, increasing ownership rates by investors as opposed to actual homeowners.

Shares of Mattel, the world's biggest toymaker, cratered as much as 24% after hours after the company announced it would suspend its quarterly dividend starting in Q4, and instead use the cash to shore up its faltering business after a big hit following the bankruptcy of its largest retailer Toys‘R‘Us. A quarter of Mattel's market cap was wiped out after earnings, which were disappointing even without the dividend news.  The suspension of its quarterly dividend of 15 cents a share is expected to save Mattel a modest $50 million per quarter.

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Many things that are scarce and thus valuable cannot be bought on the global marketplace.

Amazon has done it again, and following a lukewarm second quarter and with Goldman warning not to get too excited going into earnings, Amazon is back to its short-crushing ways, reporting both revenues and EPS which blew away expectations.  In Q3, Amazon reported EPS of 52 cents, unchanged from a year ago (due to fudging the company's tax rate) and beating consensus estimates of 4 cents, on net sales of $43.7 billion, also well above the $42.19 billion consensus estimate, entirely due to the contribution of AWS.  It was also above the high end of the company's own range, which topped out at

In a stunning scoop published minutes before the close, WSJ reports CVS Health is in talks to buy Aetna, a defensive acquisition that may help the company fend off Amazon should the e-commerce giant follow through on flirtations with the pharmacy business.

Shortly before WSJ published its report, CVS and other pharmacy stocks tumbled to their lows of the day on reports Amazon has been quietly obtaining wholesale pharmacy licenses.