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Mortgage demand last week reached its highest level since January 2023 as homeowners continued to take advantage of a decline in mortgage rates to refinance their home loans. 

Mortgage applications increased 16.8% in the week ending Aug. 9, driven by refinancing demand, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Mortgage rates didn’t decline as much as in the week prior, with the average interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages inching lower to 6.54%, but the rate is down from around 7% in early July.

The data indicated homeowners with high rates sought to lower their borrowing costs. Refinancing jumped 35% over the prior week, pushing it to its highest since May 2022. Refinancing activity is more than double what it was at the same time last year, the MBA found.

“We’ve been at such a low level for so long that even these little blips in refinancing have caused some pretty sizable percent changes,” Kan said.

Mortgage rates are near their lowest levels in more than a year, but they were still higher than at any point between 2009 and 2021. However, after facing near-7% interest for more than a year, many homeowners are pouncing on lower mortgage rates, said Joel Kan, MBA vice president and deputy chief economist.

“A lot of these are a lot of more recent loan issuances that originated in 2023 or early 2024 that are now getting into the money, even though they only have about a half percentage point rate drop,” Kan said. 

Rates were also good enough last week to increase the volume of applications for home purchases. Kan said the data shows home buyers are slowly reentering the market after high borrowing costs depressed home sales in recent months.

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Allstate (ALL) shares reached an all-time high Wednesday after the insurance provider announced it sold its Employer Voluntary Benefits business to privately owned StanCorp Financial Group, also known as The Standard, for $2 billion.

The insurer said Tuesday that the move was the first step in its plan to enable its three Allstate Health & Benefits insurance units—Employee Voluntary Benefits, Individual Health, and Group Health—to "realize their full growth potential by combining them with companies that have additional capabilities." 

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tom Wilson said that Allstate was continuing discussions to sell off the Individual Health and Group Health segments, which "are expected to achieve the same success."

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jess Merten said that Allstate believes the agreement with StanCorp will "generate a gain of about $600 million and increase deployable capital by $1.6 billion." Merten added that adjusted net income return on equity will decline by about 100 basis points (bps) after the closing of the transaction, which is expected in the first half of next year. 

Allstate stock jumped 4.7% as of 3 p.m. ET Wednesday to $180.05 after earlier hitting $181.28, a new all-time high, and joined the top four performers for the day in the S&P 500. Shares have risen about 29% in 2024.

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Performance Food Group Co. (PFGC) shares surged in intraday trading Wednesday after announcing a $2.1 billion cash acquisition of foodservice distributor Cheney Bros. and posting fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) that topped expectations.

The acquisition allows Richmond, Va.-based PFG to expand its distribution footprint across four Southeastern states with the addition of five distribution facilities. Cheney Bros. generates roughly $3.2 billion in annual revenue and is currently owned by the Cheney family along with private-equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice.

"Cheney Brothers will be an outstanding addition to our Foodservice segment, and we are excited to welcome their many talented associates to the PFG family of companies," Chief Executive Officer (CEO) George Holm said. "This acquisition will expand and enhance our offerings to a high-quality and diverse customer base. We have long admired the success of Cheney Brothers in the Southeastern U.S. and believe that the combination of our organizations will push the business to new heights."

In its fiscal fourth quarter, the company reported adjusted EPS of $1.45, topping analysts' consensus expectations, per Visible Alpha. Net sales of $15.19 billion, up 2% year-over-year, came in a tick below estimates.

Shares of the company rose 7.7% to $72.27 as of 2 p.m. ET Wednesday to move into positive territory for 2024. 

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the Monkey pox (mpox) outbreaks in Congo and other parts of Africa a global health emergency on Wednesday, August 14, 2024.

There have been cases confirmed among children and adults in more than a dozen countries and a new form of the virus spreading with few vaccine doses available on the continent.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had announced earlier this week that the mpox outbreaks were a public health emergency, with more than 500 d3aths, and called for international help to stop the virus’ spread.

“This is something that should concern us all. The potential for further spread within Africa and beyond is very worrying,” said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The Africa CDC previously said mpox, also known as monkeypox, has been detected in 13 countries this year, and more than 96% of all cases and d3aths are in Congo. Cases are up 160% and d3aths are up 19% compared with the same period last year. So far, there have been more than 14,000 cases and 524 people have d+ed.

“We are now in a situation where (mpox) poses a risk to many more neighbors in and around central Africa,” said Salim Abdool Karim, a South African infectious diseases expert who chairs the Africa CDC emergency group. He said the new version of mpox spreading from Congo appears to have a d3ath rate of about 3-4%.

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Candy giant Mars’ $35.9 billion offer for  Pop-Tarts and Pringles maker Kellanova (K) is a fresh burst of energy for the mergers and acquisitions market.

The Mars transaction is the largest M&A deal this year, according to Dealogic, ahead of Capital One Financial’s (COF) $35.3 billion offer to acquire Discover Financial Services (DFS), which was announced in February. 

It’s also the largest transaction in the food space since Heinz acquired Kraft Foods in 2015 — and the third-largest transaction in the food and beverage segment excluding spin-offs like Altria's separation of Kraft Foods in 2007. Here are the top five, dominated by deals for Kraft.

The deal comes as M&A plunged in 2023 to the lowest levels in a decade. This year, global M&A by dollar value is already above last year's levels, though still below 2022. Elevated interest rates have dampened deal activity, while economic uncertainty has also put off acquirers.

In 2015, Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) announced its purchase of SABMiller for $134.2 billion, a deal that made the mega brewer even bigger. It combined SABMiller’s Castle Lager with AB InBev’s Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Corona brands.

2015 was a blockbuster year for food and beverage transactions. That was when Kraft Heinz Company (KHC), the fifth-largest food and beverage company in the world, was formed, with HJ Heinz buying Kraft Foods.

It may have been the year of the global financial crisis, but 2008 was also the year the world's biggest beer maker, Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), was created. InBev, which made Stella Artois and Beck's, that year acquired Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Budweiser, for $62.6 billion.

The transaction, combining two companies that dominate the grocery aisle, if approved, will see closely held confectionary giant Mars expand into the snacks space.

At the start of the 21st century, French water utility Vivendi SA took a huge step in expanding in entertainment and liquor when it acquired conglomerate Seagram Co., maker of Absolut vodka. The deal, completed in 2000, was valued at $31 billion.

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