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Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) shares fell Friday as the Ohio-based bank posted a third-quarter profit drop as net interest income (NII) and noninterest income declined, and it put aside more money to cover bad loans. 

Fifth Third reported quarterly net income of $573 million, down from $660 million a year ago. Earnings per share (EPS) of $0.78 missed the consensus estimate of $0.83 of analysts polled by Visible Alpha.

Net interest income declined 1.2% year-over-year to $1.42 billion, and noninterest income was 0.6% lower at $711 million.

Fifth Third put aside $160 million for credit losses, a 34% jump from 2023, and 65% more than in the second quarter.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tim Spence said the bank put in a "strong and consistent performance" in the period, and is "well positioned for the declining interest rate environment and volatility driven by the economic and regulatory uncertainty."

Fifth Third Bancorp shares closed at a more than two-year high yesterday, and even with today's roughly 2% decline they're up nearly 30% in 2024.

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Autoliv (ALV) shares surged Friday after the world’s largest maker of airbags and seatbelts reported strong third-quarter results, despite a drop in light vehicle production amid a global slowdown in the auto sector.

Autoliv posted third-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.84, with revenue declining 0.8% from a year ago to $2.56 billion. Both figures were in line with analysts' estimates compiled by Visible Alpha.

CEO Mikael Bratt said that despite a “tough environment,” the company “managed to outgrow" light vehicle production, "enabling almost unchanged sales and operating income.” He added Autoliv had substantial outperformance in Europe and Asia, except for China.

Bratt noted the company expects market share gains with domestic Chinese original equipment manufacturers (OEM) in the coming years. 

Autoliv said that based on customer call-outs, it expects light vehicle production will decline 3% globally for the year. It now anticipates organic sales growth of about 1%, down from its earlier outlook of approximately 2%.

Autoliv shares were up over 5% at $98.84 in afternoon trading Friday, though they remained lower for 2024.

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Big Brother Naija reality TV star Victoria Adeleye, better known as Vee, has recounted how a fan sent private images to her then-boyfriend.

Vee, who famously dated her colleague Emuobonuvie Neo Oliseh Akpofure, better known as Neo, revealed that it was the fan who contacted her to spill the tea.

Speaking on a podcast, she said: “I have been in a situation where a random account messaged me with screenshots, saying they had been sending n@ked pictures to my partner.

She said she wanted to test our relationship on my behalf because she is a fan. She sent naked pictures to him, and he had seen them and maybe liked a few or something.

When I presented the situation to him, he said, “You know my manager was on that account; people are sharing that account.”

At the end of the day, the story wasn’t straightforward. I just knew there were lies being told because it never made sense. You can sense when someone is lying.

Later, the screenshots of the DM that person sent to me ended up on blogs.

We had a discussion, and because the story wasn’t clear to me, we moved on from it, but I folded it and put it in my pocket.

As she was sending me the screenshots, I was saving them. I didn’t even reply to them until this day. It was a random fake account with no ID, but it had a n@ked picture without a face. She said she just wanted to test him, and at one point, she got him a PS5 because she is his fan, and then they exchanged Snapchats.

I guess we will never know, but it looks bad, and you’ve given me an excuse that I have to accept as my fate.”

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Sorry, dividend investors: You probably won’t be rushing to add Netflix (NFLX) to your portfolios.

During the streaming giant’s third-quarter earnings call on Thursday, CFO Spencer Neuman said that the company has "no plans to increase leverage to buy back stock or to issue a dividend." Neuman said Netflix is still prioritizing “profitable growth by reinvesting in our business” and maintaining “ample liquidity.”

Wall Street expects Netflix's full-year free cash flow to top $10 billion in 2026, according to Visible Alpha data. Still, Neuman said Netflix isn’t planning to change its capital allocation strategy. The company said Thursday that it repurchased $1.7 billion of its shares during the third quarter, with more than $3 billion of currently authorized buybacks remaining.

“In terms of [the] kind of future of free cash flow, well, that future of throwing off tens of billions of free cash flow, that would be a great future and would be a nice challenge to have,” said Neuman on the call, a transcript of which was made available by AlphaSense. “But no change to our capital allocation policy.”

Netflix reported third-quarter results on Thursday. The company's stock was recently up more than 10%.

Other big tech companies have a history of issuing dividends—including Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Meta (META), Nvidia (NVDA) and Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL).

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The Federal Government is seeking a $500 million World Bank loan to improve basic education, aiming to boost learning and cut out-of-school numbers.

This is according to the Programme Information Document for the loan project.

Naira Metrics reports that the loan is part of the World Bank’s HOPE for Quality Basic Education for All initiative, which aims to improve learning outcomes and address the challenges of out-of-school children.

Set for formal approval by March 2025, this project plays a key role in Nigeria’s education reform efforts.

The PID disclosed the total cost at $554m, with $500m funded by the World Bank and $54m from the Global Partnership for Education grant.

“The HOPE-Education operation will be financed by a World Bank IDA credit of $500m and a GPE grant of $54m.

The bank has been selected as one of two grant agents (along with UNICEF that will manage the other $54m) for implementing the System Transformation Grant of $107.59m; programme design, oversight, and TA for implementation support will be aligned across both agents,” the document read.

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Homebuilding continued at a relatively slow pace in September as builders waited for a boost from lower mortgage rates, which has yet to arrive.

Builders broke ground on new homes in September at an annual rate of 1.35 million, the Census Bureau said Friday. That was down slightly from the rate of 1.36 million in August, and 1.36 million in September 2023. As recently as April 2022, builders were breaking ground at a rate of 1.82 million new homes per year. The September figure matched forecasts, according to a survey of economists by and .

Builders are not constructing enough houses to keep up with population growth. In 2022, 2.06 million households were formed, far more than the 1.6 million houses and apartment units that builders began to construct that year, according to an analysis by Realtor.com. Years of under-building since the Great Recession have left the U.S. with a persistent housing shortage that's helped drive up prices. At the same time, high mortgage rates are making homes even less affordable.Housing economists expect those high rates to come down in the coming year as the Federal Reserve reduces its benchmark fed funds rate, which they had held at a two-decade high to combat inflation. However, the downward path has been bumpy: the average rate offered for a 30-year mortgage rose to 6.44% this week, the highest since August, and well above the sub-3% rates available during the pandemic, according to Freddie Mac."U.S. home builders are in a holding period, awaiting further rate cuts to kick-start demand," Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a commentary.

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