Government

Restrained by drops in farm income and sequester-driven cuts in government programs, personal income slipped $5.6 billion in April while personal consumption spending dropped $20.5 billion, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday. Though the income drop was less than one percent (0.04 percent), and it was less than the 0.1 percent increase forecast by economists who also expected April spending to be flat compared to March.

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman recently brought attention to two foreclosure bills meant to provide greater protection to homeowners in the state. The Certificate of Merit gives homeowners who are facing foreclosure the chance to participate in a court-supervised mediation session with their bank.

Encouraging economic data helped lift fixed mortgage rates to their highest level in the past year this week, according to surveys from Freddie Mac and Bankrate.com. Freddie Mac's survey showed the 30-year fixed rate rising to an average 3.81 percent (0.8 point) for the week ending May 30, up from last week's 3.59 percent. Since the beginning of May, the 30-year fixed average has jumped up nearly half a percentage point. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) also soared this week, rising to 2.98 percent (0.7 point) from last week's 2.77 percent.

The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) rose a disappointing 0.3 percent to 106.0 in April, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Thursday. Both the new homes sales and the pending home sales reports measure contract signings and are designed to be forward looking indicators. With the month-over-month improvement, the PHSI is 10.3 percent above April 2012, the strongest year-over-year gain since October when the PHSI was up 12.1 percent from a year earlier. The index has improved month-over-month in three of the last four months.

The nation's economy grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.4 percent in the first quarter, slightly slower than originally reported, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday. At the same time, corporate profits in the first quarter were $1.97 trillion, down almost $44 billion from the fourth quarter. The last time corporate profits showed a quarter-over-quarter decline was in the first quarter of 2012. Corporate profits are considered a key indicator of employment trends. Residential fixed investment was essentially unchanged from the initial report at $397.3 billion.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance rose for the third time in the last four weeks, increasing 10,000 to 354,000 for the week ending May 25, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and Citigroup have reached a settlement over allegations of fraud in the selling of $3.5 billion of mortgage-backed securities (MBS). A filing on Tuesday revealed FHFA had dropped its suit against the bank, having reached a settlement. A spokesperson for FHFA did not comment on the amount of the settlement or the terms, saying that it was ""satisfactory."" A spokesperson for Citigroup remarked only that the company is ""pleased to put this matter behind us.""

Freddie Mac is giving servicers more time to adopt several new requirements concerning its default-related legal services.

According to the CFPB, Wednesday's amendments are the result of months of input offered by industry groups and the public at large. The Ability-to-Repay rule, set to take effect January 10, 2014, establishes basic requirements designed to ensure consumers don't take on loans they can't pay back. The new amendments exempt certain nonprofit and community-based lenders who work to help low- and moderate-income consumers get into affordable housing.

Together, commercial banks and savings institutions insured by the FDIC earned record profits in the first quarter, while the number of ""problem"" banks continued to decline. According to the FDIC, net income for FDIC-insured institutions reached an an all-time high of $40.3 billion in Q1, up by 15.8 percent from last year. FDIC's list of ""problem"" banks was reduced for the eighth straight quarter, decreasing to 612. Two years ago, 888 banks were on the list.