Daily Financial News - Mortgage | Real Estate | Stock Market

Stocks Muster Gains; Nasdaq at 18-month High - CNNMoney.com -- Stocks managed gains Tuesday at the end of a choppy session as investors mulled the latest corporate deal and profit news on the anniversary of the bear-market bottom.

The Dow Jones industrial average added nearly 12 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 index added less than two points. Both closed at 6-week highs. A stock advance fizzled out Tuesday, one year after what many consider to be the bottom of the bear market.

Commercial and Multifamily Mortgages Outperforming Overall Bank Holdings -  Commercial and multifamily mortgages continue to have the lowest rates of charge-offs of any loan types at banks and thrifts and perform better than the overall loan portfolios at those institutions according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

The report states that 56 percent of the assets held by banks and thrifts at the end of 2009 consisted of loans and leases, a category that includes 1-4 family mortgages, home equity loans, credit cards and other consumer loans, commercial mortgages, multifamily mortgages, construction loans, and commercial and industrial loans.  One to four family residential loans constitute the largest part of this category of bank holdings at $1.9 trillion or 26 percent of the total; commercial and commercial mortgages represent another $1.1 trillion or 15 percent, and commercial and industrial loans $1.2 trillion or 17 percent.  Multifamily mortgages are a much smaller component at $211 billion or 3 percent of the portfolios but these are the only category of loan to have grown over the last year.