Why Investors Need Facebook Inc (FB), Bank of America Corp (BAC), Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) and Today’s Other Big Financial Stories

4. Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC)‘s complete domination of the mortgage market
This is more of an interesting read for bank investors. The Wall Street Journal published an article today that examines Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC)‘s growing domination of the mortgage market. Among other interesting tidbits, the article notes that the bank grabbed “an unprecedented 28.8% of all home loans issued nationwide last year.” That translated into a staggering $524 billion in mortgages. In addition, it’s now making impressive inroads in previously untapped markets like New York City. According to a mortgage executive interviewed for the article, “They are dominating the retail space because they are huge, and because there is so little competition from other big banks that have pulled back.” To read more about this, click here.

5. Data
The private payroll processing company ADP estimated today that private sector employment increased by 158,000 jobs in March. This was the smallest monthly gain since October, and it came on the heels of a revised 237,000 gain for the month of February. According to Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, “Job growth moderated in March. Construction employment gains paused as the rebuilding surge in the wake of Superstorm Sandy ended. Anticipation of Health Care Reform may also be weighing on employment at companies with close to 50 employees.”

Finally, the Mortgage Bankers Association released its weekly estimate of mortgage applications. For the week ended March 29, the association’s market composite index, a measure of loan application volume, decreased 4% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. Meanwhile, the average contract interest rate for conforming 30-year fixed rate mortgages decreased three basis points to 3.76%.

The article Why Investors Need Facebook, and Today’s Other Big Financial Stories originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by John Maxfield.

John Maxfield owns shares of Bank of America. The Motley Fool recommends Facebook, Netflix, and Wells Fargo. The Motley Fool owns shares of Bank of America, Facebook, Netflix, and Wells Fargo.

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