Almost non-existent trading volumes continue to remind us of the 2pm bond market close that can't come soon enough on this last day of the year. This leaves those of us who are here in body but not in spirit to occupy our time by producing something useful before the books officially close on 2010. So...
Mortgage rates initially started to rise yesterday morning but were quick to reverse course as stocks lost recovery momentum. The stock market's reversal of fortune forced investors to reallocate their funds into risk averse assets like government guaranteed U.S. Treasuries . This sent benchmark...
Good Morning. What a great National Championship game. Congrats to Duke. Now that college basketball is over I can devote all my energy to hockey. CAPS vs. pens tonight! Overseas rates traders came back to work today to find much cheaper bond prices and higher "risk free" yields thus, "rate...
Good Morning. Happy Friday. A warmer than anticipated read on producer level inflation outweighed a rise in jobless claims and a better than expected Philly Fed print yesterday, this made it possible for traders to extend their bear steepening bias into next week's $118bn TSY coupon offering (+$8bn...
Mortgage rates moved higher yesterday morning...and then they moved even higher yesterday afternoon! The day began with mortgage-backed securities prices moving lower, which forced lenders to increase consumer borrowing costs before many rate watchers had a chance to get to a computer. Later in the day...
After making noticeable improvements toward the end of last week, mortgage rates failed to extend positive progress yesterday. After a weak open, mortgage backed securities prices traded in a narrow range for most of the day. Despite MBS prices moving lower at the open, lenders were still able to offer...
Yesterday the President announced his intention to propose a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee that would require the largest and most highly levered Wall Street firms to pay back taxpayers for the extraordinary assistance provided so that the TARP program does not add to the deficit. The fee the President...
While mortgage rates ended the week on a three day losing streak , we did find solace in the fact that prices of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) were able to stabilized by the end of the trading session on Friday. After two better than expected economic reports, retail sales and consumer sentiment,...
The theme in the secondary mortgage market this week has been volatility. Prices of mortgage backed securities have moved around a wide range as traders attempt to balance their uncertain long term economic outlooks with optimistic short term sentiment in stocks. This ongoing struggle has mostly insulated...
Interview and discussion with Keith McCullough of the Research Edge. He says inflation will accelerate in the fourth quarter. (Bloomberg News)