For the 3rd time this year, the S&P avoided making new intraday lows, and for the 3rd time this year, mortgage rates moved higher.  I am not a fan of reducing mortgage rate movement to something that merely mimics and traces stock market fluctuations, but for the most part, that's been the only game in town in 2016.  Rates are clearly paying attention to equities markets, albeit indirectly. 

We might even say that rates look nervous about a potential bounce in equities markets.  For instance, stocks only really held sideways near Friday's closing lows yet mortgage rates were noticeably higher.  We haven't even had the opportunity to see how rates will respond if stocks have a few solid days back-to-back.  Things could conceivably be much worse, so it makes sense for rates to look a bit nervous whenever the 2016 stock meltdown takes a day off.


MBS Pricing Snapshot
Pricing shown below is delayed, please note the timestamp at the bottom. Real time pricing is available via MBS Live.
MBS
FNMA 3.5
103-30 : -0-02
Treasuries
10 YR
2.0590 : +0.0260
Pricing as of 1/19/16 4:53PMEST

Today's Reprice Alerts and Updates
A recap of Alerts and Updates provided to MBS Live subscribers.
4:36PM  :  ALERT ISSUED: If You Were Planning on Locking Today, No Point in Waiting
10:12AM  :  Bonds Briefly Back in The Green as Stocks/Oil Slide

MBS Live Chat Highlights
A recap of featured comments from the Live Discussion on the MBS Live Dashboard.
Bryce Schetselaar  :  "Edie-Sun West will do it on an FHA loan as well"
Dustin McAlister  :  "some investors allow it too though, I want to say Wells but not for sure. I know I looked it up for a VA loan and could swear it said any"
Edie Clark  :  "Can you do FHA loans in odd year terms, 26 vs 30-yrs or does it have to be in 5 yr increments? Thanks!"
Ted Rood  :  "sounds like a complete VA turn down. I'd guess even after the removal there'd have to be a monitoring period and clean bill of health before it could be sold for anything other than cash."
Matt Hodges  :  "sounds like an environmental/safety issue. contamination of property - potentially much worse than early estimates - seller escrow might not be sufficient. could be hazardous - flammable, unsafe if ingested. sounds dicey, BM."
Brian McFarlane  :  "Tank is leaking, and borrower is paying to mitigate and remove, but this cannot be done until the ground thaws out."
Brian McFarlane  :  "has anyone run in to issues with an underground oil tank on VA loans?"