goog

On Wednesday, federal investigators filed mortgage and accounting fraud charges against Beazer Homes USA (NYSE: BZH). The homebuilder will be able to escape prosecution because it agreed to pay $50 million to victims and to accept responsibility for its improper actions.

Beazer found itself charged thanks to its participation in a scheme designed to fraudulently increase its profits and sell homes. Reportedly, the company also participated in an accounting scheme that was designed to "smooth earnings." Thanks to these schemes, homebuyers defaulted on their loans and some neighborhoods saw home values plummet thanks to loan defaults. State and federal investigators have scrutinized Beazer since March 2007, finding that the company's "aggressive sales tactics" contributed to an "unusually high foreclosure rate in many of its local starter-home communities."

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that "The Dow Jones Equity All REIT Total Return Index, which tracks 114 publicly traded REIT stocks, rose 28.9% in the April-June period, the biggest quarterly gain for the index since it debuted in 1989."

REITs still have a long, long way to go until they've regained the ground they've lost during the real estate rout -- they were down 31.6% in the first quarter and 38.8% in the fourth quarter of last year.

Are mortgage rates affecting U.S. mortgage applications? The short answer most likely is yes. Mortgage applications tumbled to a 7 month low, with refinancing loans down 30%, according to Reuters. This is clearly not a good sign for the housing market.

Kenneth Rosen from the University of California says that mortgage rates are just one factor causing the drop. He adds that high unemployment, concerns for job security, and problems with buyers being unable to sell their existing homes are also affecting the market.

How does the consumer feel about the economy? In a word, lousy. The Conference Board, an industry group, reported that consumer confidence dropped to 49.3 in June, from a reading of 54.8 in May. Economists had expected it to be 55.

Here's another piece of bad news. Only 17.4% of consumers felt that more jobs would appear in the coming months, also down from 19.3% in May.

U.S. stock futures were higher Wednesday morning as stocks were ready to start off the third quarter on a positive note. However, several key economic reports are due out this morning, including reports on manufacturing, employment and housing. Recently, manufacturing has shown improvement in other parts of the world.

Stocks finished the second quarter Tuesday on a down note, but that couldn't erase the advances indices made during the quarter with the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing the second quarter up 11 percent, the S&P 500 rose 15 percent and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 20 percent.

Early estimates of a contraction in the U.K. economy were not enough. First quarter 2009 estimates were revisited, showing a 2.4% fall in gross domestic product from the last quarter of 2008 to 2009. This downward revision made the first three months of the year the worst since people wore skinny ties, hated communism, and bore nicknames like "Buzz."

In the second quarter of 1958, U.K. GDP plummeted 2.6%, though the 2.4% threshold matches the depths hit in 1979. The original 2009 Q1 estimate was -1.9%, according to the Office for National Statistics in London.

U.S. stock futures were higher Tuesday morning, indicating that on the last day of the second quarter and first half of 2009 Wall Street is poised to start on a positive tone. Seems investors were ready to extend the biggest rally stocks have staged in a quarter in about a decade . Investors this morning also await several economic indicators -- including housing and consumer confidence -- due out later this morning, hoping further signs the economy have stabilized are in the cards and a recovery is ahead in the second half of the year.

At 9:00 a.m. EDT, the Conference Board will release the June Consumer Confidence index, which is expected to have risen to 55.3 from 54.9, according to Briefing.com. The housing sector will also be in focus as at the same time the S&P/Case Shiller 20-city home price index for April is expected to show a decline from the year ago period. FInally, at 9:45 a.m., June's Chicago PMI, a regional manufacturing index, is expected to show it rose in June.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the endless worries will prove bogus, and jobs creation could spur a real lift.

Alt-A. Endless bank foreclosures. Commercial real estate. These are the big three worries that will not be killed by data, rigor or common sense, no matter what happens.

Doesn't it occur to anyone that there already should have been a big spike in commercial real estate losses by now? That the decline in the economy has lasted long enough that it should have manifested itself? Doesn't anyone think that there should have been a big commercial real estate bad-debt bump at a Citigroup (NYSE: C) (Cramer's Take) or a JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) (Cramer's Take) or a Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) (Cramer's Take)?

We will get a little better idea of just what is happening with the real estate market tomorrow when home builder Lennar Corporation (NYSE: LEN) reports its second quarter results.

Headed into tomorrow's earnings announcement, analysts are expecting another loss, but a much smaller loss than the company reported for its first quarter. Last quarter we saw a loss of 98 cents per share. This quarter analysts are predicting a loss of "only" 63 cents per share.

Looking for new digs? Well if you're a person or a couple of means, you could snare film producer Bob Weinstein's place on Central Park West in Manhattan, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday (Subscription required).

The 6,500-square-foot, 14-room duplex is in the glamorous Beresford Building and features six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a family room, formal dining room, two balconies, three fireplaces, and a library, the Real Estalker notes.

U.S. stock futures advanced Wednesday morning, pointing to a higher open on Wall Street, but trading is expected to be cautious as investors await the Federal Reserve policy statement this afternoon, which would also give clues about the state of the economy. Meanwhile, another group said the global recession is near a bottom, but flared up concerns over banks again. More economic data due out later this morning could the market a better sense of direction.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Wednesday the deepest global recession in over 60 years is close to bottoming out. While this view may be more optimistic than the World Bank's or the IMF recently, the OECD has similar projections regarding the recovery, which will be weak unless governments do more to remove uncertainty over banks' balance sheets.

U.S. stock futures advanced Tuesday morning, pointing to a higher open on Wall Street, a day after markets sold off sharply. Today is the first day of the Federal Reserve policy meeting, but a statement is not expected until tomorrow. Meanwhile, investors will look at more housing data and focus on Moody's saying it will maintain the United States' credit rating at triple-A.

Moody's Investors Service said on Tuesday that the U.S. government's triple-A credit rating was safe. But echoing financial markets concers, the credit rating agency said U.S.'s rating could be at risk if Washington were unable to bring its public debt back down.

Outspoken congressman Barney Frank has no shortage of critics, and they're sure to be out in force today. This morning, The Wall Street Journal reported that the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, along with his colleague Anthony Weiner, is actually recommending that Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) relax their lending standards on condominiums.

The controversial request follows a decision by both Fannie and Freddie to tighten mortgage-lending standards for condos. In March, Fannie said it would no longer guarantee mortgages on condos in buildings where fewer than 70% of units have been rented, up from its previous benchmark of 51%. Freddie is due to implement similar measures in July. In a letter to the CEOs of both mortgage lenders, Reps. Frank and Weiner expressed their concerns that the higher standard "may be too onerous," and asked the lenders to "make appropriate adjustments" to their approach.

Markets were mixed and downish Tuesday, but there was some good news to be found.

Housing starts and building permits soared, causing a big pop in shares to battered homebuilders. Whether this is a false start or a real jump, its hard to get anything but good news out of a housing market so beaten down.

On the industrial side, the Produce Price Index remained relatively stable, walking the narrow path between two evils -- deflation and inflation.

It was the largest jump in three months, as new home construction increased by 17.2% during the last month.

The increase was much higher than analysts had been expecting, and last month we moved up to an annual rate of 532,000 units... well above the 500,000 units that had been forecast.