Most mortgage rates have inched up again today. According to Zillow, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate has increased by six basis points to 6.47%, and the 15-year fixed rate is up seven basis points to 5.82%. Are you trying to decide whether rates are low enough to buy a house? It's a good question — after all, mortgage rates are much lower than a year ago.

Some of the world’s biggest names in finance, gathered at Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative, seemed to suggest market bets for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts might be overdone. In September, the Federal Open Market Committee voted 11 to 1 to lower the federal funds rate to a range of 4.75% to 5%, after holding it for more than a year at its highest level in two decades.

In his iconic song The Gambler, Kenny Rogers famously sang, “Every hand’s a winner, and every hand’s a loser.” Two penny stocks, Regulus Therapeutics (RGLS) and Ventyx Biosciences (VTYX), have received bullish support from analysts, offering high-reward opportunities with over 500% potential gains in the coming months.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen argues that Americans are better off than they were when President Joe Biden took office, citing robust economic growth, low unemployment, and falling inflation, despite voters' concerns over high prices. Yellen highlights the administration's investments in clean energy, infrastructure, and semiconductors.

Microsoft (MSFT) is at the forefront of the AI arms race, boasting an exceptional business model that consistently generates substantial and growing free cash flow. With the company’s current valuation appearing fair, now may be an opportune time to buy its shares. I have a 12-month price target of $482.40, while the average Wall Street price target is $503.27.

This past summer, leads for Brian Brown's landscaping business near Lake Tahoe were drying up. “We’d put together bids, call clients, and they were like, 'well, we’re going to think about it,'" said Brown, whose typical customer owns luxury property in the California resort area. "Most of our clientele are not the kind of people that ‘think about it.'"

Sharekhan's research report on Torrent Pharmaceuticals: Torrent’s revenue reached Rs. 2,889 crore, reflecting a 9% y-o-y increase and a 1% q-o-q rise, driven by growth in key geographies. EBITDA stood at Rs. 939 crore, up 14% y-o-y and 4% q-o-q. Margins reached 33%, up 149 bps y-o-y and 88 bps q-o-q.Insulin revenue during the quarter was affected by a scheduled maintenance shutdown in August.

Sharekhan's research report on Transport Corporation of India: TCI reported marginally higher-than-expected consolidated revenue, led by strong growth in Seaways and sustained growth in SCM and JVs. OPM stayed in-line, while net profit beat estimates. Management has retained its overall topline and bottom-line growth guidance of 10-15% y-o-y for FY2025.

The Indian government will impose penalties on General Electric Co. for severe delays in the delivery of jet engines that power the country’s light-combat aircraft, according to an Indian official with knowledge of the matter. Delivery of the F404 engines for Indian Air Force’s locally-made Tejas Light Combat Aircraft Mk1 series was pushed back to March 2025, the official said, anonymously.

V2 Retail's Q2FY2025 results were mixed, with 64% revenue growth but lagging EBIDTA margins at 8.7%. Same-store-sales-growth was 34%, driven by a strong festive and winter season, with the company targeting 60 store openings in FY2025. The stock trades at 20x FY25E EV/EBIDTA, and Sharekhan maintains a Positive outlook with a price target of Rs. 1,445.

SBI Card posted a net profit of ₹404.42 crore in Q2 FY25, marking a significant 32.9% decline from ₹602.98 crore in the same quarter last year. Despite the profit dip, the company saw an 8.2% year-on-year (YoY) rise in total revenue, reaching ₹4,421 crore, up from ₹4,087 crore a year ago. The company’s cost-to-income ratio stood at 53.4%, down by 375 basis points (bps) YoY.

Voltas reported its earnings for the quarter ended September just after market close on Tuesday. What Happened: The consumer durables company’s net profit for the quarter under review stood at ₹134 crore, a 265% increase from the ₹36.7 crore posted in the same quarter last year. The company's revenue from operations went up 14.3% year-on-year, to ₹2,619 crore.

Wind turbine manufacturer Suzlon Energy Ltd has earmarked capital expenditure (capex) of Rs 300 crore for financial year (FY) 2025 in a bid to enhance capacity amid growing demand for renewable power in India, the company's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Himanshu Mody, told Moneycontrol in an interview. The wind energy player has a total capacity of 3.1 gigs watts (GW).

Tata Power, which will announce its Q2FY25 earnings on October 30, is expected to report a 11 percent increase in revenue year-on-year (YoY) at Rs 17,522 crore in the July-to-September quarter. The power company is also estimated to report an EBITDA margin of around 19.2 percent, marginally down from 19.6 percent in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

📌The top gainers within the Nifty index included SBI (up 5.13%), Bharat Electronics (up 5.04%), Eicher Motors (up 3.76%), SBI Life Insurance Company (up 3.45%), and HDFC Life Insurance Company (up 3.36%). 📌Conversely, the top losers were Tata Motors (down 4.06%), Maruti Suzuki India (down 3.81%), Hero Motocorp (down 2.85%), Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (down 2.81%), and Cipla (down 1.70%).