Fri, Feb 13 2026, 4:13 PM
Bonds Close Out Epic Week of Resilience With Friendly Data
Friday was a logically friendly day thanks to sli...
Fri, Feb 13 2026, 2:07 PM
When the administration announced that Fannie and Freddie would be buying mortgage-backed securities in early January, rates fell sharply to the lowes...
Fri, Feb 13 2026, 1:54 PM
Existing-home sales pulled back sharply in January, quickly dashing any hopes that December’s year-end rebound brought, as harsh winter weather and st...
Fri, Feb 13 2026, 10:58 AM
Products, Services, and Software for Brokers and Lenders QC works as an early warning system, but it only creates value when findings are recognized...
Fri, Feb 13 2026, 9:55 AM
CPI came in just a hair below forecasts at the headline level and right in line with forecasts at the core level (unrounded .295 vs .300). Shelter com...
Thu, Feb 12 2026, 4:16 PM
Yields Magically and Mysteriously Sink to Lowest Levels in 2 Months.
At the 3pm CME close, 10yr yields were ...
Thu, Feb 12 2026, 2:35 PM
Just one day after an incredibly strong jobs report--something that would normally create problematic upward momentum for rates--the average lender is...
Thu, Feb 12 2026, 11:47 AM
Here at San Diego’s MCT Exchange 2026, the hallway chatter is varied. These are capital markets personnel, so things are pragmatic. One topic is Fredd...
Thu, Feb 12 2026, 9:07 AM
When the jobs report makes a big statement, bonds are more likely to exhibit elevated momentum and volatility in the following days. In more than a fe...
Wed, Feb 11 2026, 4:09 PM
Stunning Resilience
One could argue that our bar is set too low if we view today's bond market resilience as...
Wed, Feb 11 2026, 2:26 PM
Mortgage rates moved 0.03% higher today. On almost any other day, this would be a bit of a bummer, but in today's case, it's a victory. There was a t...
Wed, Feb 11 2026, 2:03 PM
Mortgage application activity was essentially flat last week, almost impressively so. After much recent volatility, the index is finding a brief momen...
Wed, Feb 11 2026, 11:50 AM
Products, Services, and Software for Brokers and Lenders “Escrow is supposed to be predictable. But in default servicing, that predictability dimini...
Wed, Feb 11 2026, 9:48 AM
Nearly an hour after this morning's surprisingly strong jobs report, 10yr yields are only 4.4bps higher at 4.19%. On a normal day, 4.4bps might be a f...
Tue, Feb 10 2026, 3:39 PM
Best Levels in Weeks Ahead of High Stakes Jobs Report
Rather than circle the wagons and consolidate the rece...
Tue, Feb 10 2026, 2:20 PM
Mortgage rates fell on Tuesday following a downbeat Retail Sales report. At 0.05%, it was the largest single-day drop since the uncommonly big 0.15% d...
Tue, Feb 10 2026, 11:52 AM
Products, Services, and Software for Brokers and Lenders There’s a reason $5.99 feels different than $6.00. Behavioral economists call it the “left-...
Tue, Feb 10 2026, 9:42 AM
Last Thursday, we discussed the paradox of a rally in the present moment being driven by future data. More specifically, the three downbeat labor mark...
Mon, Feb 9 2026, 4:31 PM
Early Volatility And a Decent Recovery
Bonds lost ground in the overnight session after Chinese regulators c...
Mon, Feb 9 2026, 3:15 PM
The past 2 weeks have seen very little volatility for mortgage rates. After being near 6% for a week in early January, rates rose abruptly to 6.21% (...
Mon, Feb 9 2026, 12:04 PM
Lenders are always analyzing automation for parts of the manufacturing process, and industry vet and STRATMOR Senior Advisor Sue Woodard has her thoug...
Mon, Feb 9 2026, 11:02 AM
Most nights, Treasuries trade in fairly low volume in a fairly narrow range. Last night's range wasn't much wider than normal, but most of the moveme...
Fri, Feb 6 2026, 3:31 PM
Potential Signs of GSE Buying as MBS Outperform
It was an uneventful day when it comes to scheduled data/eve...
Fri, Feb 6 2026, 12:51 PM
In the bigger picture, the past two and a half weeks have been marked by a very narrow range in the bond market. Because bonds dictate mortgage rates,...
Fri, Feb 6 2026, 11:32 AM
Mortgage application activity moved lower again last week, extending the pullback from January’s earlier burst of demand as weather disruptions and so...
Fri, Feb 6 2026, 11:31 AM
Products, Services, and Software for Brokers and Lenders Truework is a comprehensive income and employment verification platform that fully replaces...
Fri, Feb 6 2026, 9:53 AM
Friday is the quietest day of the week in terms of scheduled econ data and events, with the relatively unimportant Consumer Sentiment being the only n...
Thu, Feb 5 2026, 2:59 PM
Surprisingly Big Bond Rally Relative to The Data
Bonds went on a bit of a buying spree on Thursday. It was t...
Thu, Feb 5 2026, 1:52 PM
Mortgage rates are driven by bonds and that bonds care about employment data. There are quite a few different economic reports that focus on various e...
Thu, Feb 5 2026, 11:31 AM
Yup, another competitor for lenders come July: Bed Bath & Beyond is acquiring Tokens.com “to develop a blockchain-based investment and personal financ...
Thu, Feb 5 2026, 9:21 AM
Bonds were incidentally and inconsequentially stronger to start the overnight session, but began to see better gains after 7am ET. There were two nota...
Wed, Feb 4 2026, 3:57 PM
No Whammies in Wednesday's Data. JOLTS Rescheduled for Thursday
With the big jobs report on hold until next ...
Wed, Feb 4 2026, 2:58 PM
The average top tier 30yr fixed mortgage rate hit its highest levels in 2 weeks yesterday. The caveat was that the range has been very narrow during t...
Wed, Feb 4 2026, 11:45 AM
Products, Services, and Software for Brokers and Lenders Can AI help you spot the lending bias you can’t see? In his CEO Magazine Podcast interview,...
Wed, Feb 4 2026, 9:01 AM
Today's two key reports are ADP Employment (8:15am ET) and ISM Services (10am ET). The former came out a bit softer than expected, but bonds didn't r...
Tue, Feb 3 2026, 3:48 PM
Mostly Sideways. Volatility Elsewhere
The legend of the bond market's extreme apathy is increasingly making ...
Tue, Feb 3 2026, 3:23 PM
The bad news: mortgage rates moved up to their highest levels in 2 weeks today. The good news: the rate range has been very narrow during that time,...
Tue, Feb 3 2026, 11:08 AM
Regarding rate movement, the bond market often does the Fed’s job for it, and so whatever the Fed’s Open Market Committee actually does is almost an a...
Tue, Feb 3 2026, 10:38 AM
While not as disruptive or publicized as the most recent example, there's a partial government shutdown underway. Even if the House passes the funding...
Mon, Feb 2 2026, 4:14 PM
Data-Driven Sell-Off Dominates The Day. No Jobs Report on Friday
Very little changed after this morning's co...
Mon, Feb 2 2026, 3:35 PM
Weakness in the bond market generally means higher mortgage rates. Today was no exception. A key economic report on the manufacturing sector was much ...
Mon, Feb 2 2026, 11:54 AM
There are lots of rumors about more M&A. For example, Maxwell, a POS and mortgage origination services company, being acquired by Place, a real estate...
Mon, Feb 2 2026, 10:19 AM
Some would say there were warning signs, such as last week's Chicago PMI surging to the 2nd highest level since 2022, but that was generally dismissed...
Fri, Jan 30 2026, 4:36 PM
Volatility Eludes Bonds
Bonds saw some steady selling pressure earlier in the week, but with the total damag...
Fri, Jan 30 2026, 4:10 PM
While there was certainly plenty of volatility elsewhere in the financial market this week, there was almost none to be found in mortgage rates. Wed, ...
Fri, Jan 30 2026, 2:09 PM
Both the FHFA and the S&P/Cotality Case-Shiller home price indices released November data this week, and the combined message is that home price appre...
Fri, Jan 30 2026, 1:59 PM
Mortgage application activity retreated a bit last week following two weeks of unusually strong volume, although holiday timing played a meaningful ro...
Fri, Jan 30 2026, 11:59 AM
There’s a lot of sensible thinking going on out there in our biz. Yesterday in the Thought Leadership section, attorney Mitch Kider addressed the “Rul...
Fri, Jan 30 2026, 10:03 AM
PPI... The Producer Price Index. It sounds a lot like CPI because both are published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and they share lots of methodol...
Thu, Jan 29 2026, 4:37 PM
Bonds End Up Little-Changed. Other Markets May Have Helped
Bonds began the day with a bit of selling pressur...
