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Of course there was the initial news this morning that Greece's Prime Minister George Papandreou called for a referendum of the recently agreed-upon conditions of the Greek bailout which ushered bond markets to their best levels since 10/6. We noted the drama HERE . But said drama continued to unfold...
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If you want a job, should you go to The Great State of Texas? (Unofficial motto: "So what if it's a little hot?") Maybe: ButItsADryHeat Think about it. The yield on the US 10-yr is 2.50%. Sometimes I have to be reminded that this means only earning 2.50% for the next ten years. So if a 70-yr old retiree...
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For a third day in a row, intraday price volatility kept mortgage rate watchers on their toes and lenders defensive . The Fannie 4.0 MBS coupon bounced around an 11/32 range and even jumped from one end to the other, twice! While this forced us to issue multiple directional warnings, only scattered reprices...
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Indecisive investor attitudes carry over into the week ahead where two major events are seen shaping outlooks. The U.S. Federal Reserve will conclude a two-day monetary policy meeting on Wednesday afternoon with the release of the FOMC Statement. We expect the Fed to confirm an end to its second Quantitative...
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The Federal Reserve will make history today when the Chairman of the Board stands before the media to usher in a new era of transparency in monetary policy. And that's the last event to take place on a busy calendar in the day ahead. Before that we get Durable Goods Orders at 830 and Homeownership and...
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Scattered reprices for the better were reported today. Rate sheets are about as strong as they've been in a month. Price action in the bond market was a little odd though.... S&P futures ended the session +0.75% at 1340.75. Oddly enough, the benchmark 10-year note also enjoyed a nice little rally...
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The Thanksgiving slowdown prevented me from posting the Federal Reserve's updated economic forecast. The Fed's Summary of Economic Projections are released once a quarter. They are attached to the minutes of four of the Committee’s FOMC meetings and are intended to convey information about FOMC...
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The speech below was given by Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke yesterday. It is a fantastic knowledge base builder for any Fed watcher. Anyone who follows the movements of mortgage rates should be paying close attention to the communications of the Federal Reserve. I called attention to comments...
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The FOMC Statement has been released.. The subtle alterations made to the statement were skewed to the bearish side of the BIG PICTURE storyline. This includes a reference of weakness abroad and definite dovish tone on inflation ("underlying inflation has trended lower" = deflationary concerns...
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Mortgage rates just had another one of those "back and forth" weeks. Fortunately, while the road was rocky (lots of reprice alerts), total consumer borrowing costs went into the weekend near their most aggressive levels of the year, only slightly above record lows. The latest round of "ups...
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The Federal Reserve has released the Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee Meeting held on April 27-28, 2010. Here are some of the highlights provided by Reuters: Fed April minutes show extended discussion of asset sales, but most favored deferring sales for some time Most preferred eventual sales...
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Mortgage rates greatly benefited from headline news yesterday. Around mid-morning we learned that Standard and Poor's had cut Greece's government debt rating all the way down to junk. That is as low as ratings go! Stocks, which have rallied for eight consecutive weeks, sold off sharply on the...
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The Federal Open Market Committee today released their monetary policy statement. From the Federal Reserve website: The Federal Reserve System, often referred to as the Federal Reserve or simply "the Fed," is the central bank of the United States. It was created by Congress to provide the nation...
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Mortgage rates yesterday recovered the rate sheet losses lenders passed along to consumers last Friday. The was no specific reason for the modest improvement. Economic data was absent and trading activity was slow. For the most part, lenders were able to share small gains because mortgage-backed security...
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Mortgage rates bounced back and forth in a relatively tight range before going out at their highest levels of the week last Friday. Although prices of mortgage-backed securities managed to rally of their lows of the day, most lenders did not reprice for the better. The only economic data we got today...