Wed, Apr 1 2015, 7:34 AM
As the new quarter begins, let's pause to consider where we should be looking for bond market motivation. What has been motivating rate movements so ...
Wed, Apr 1 2015, 5:33 PM
Today went off without a hitch for bond markets. A rally in European debt overnight (strong German bond auction) helped Treasuries and MBS start th...
Wed, Apr 1 2015, 4:58 PM
Mortgage rates fell appreciably today , this time at the fastest pace of the current winning streak. In fact, it was the biggest move lower since t...
Wed, Apr 1 2015, 1:02 PM
Granted the day is not over yet, but at this point, a full-scale reversal of the morning's momentum is unlikely. As expected, with month-end out of t...
Wed, Apr 1 2015, 1:02 PM
Overall construction spending in the U.S. was essentially
unchanged from January to February and there was only slight movement in both
public and...
Tue, Mar 31 2015, 12:43 PM
After a relatively uneventful overnight session, bond markets began the day in slightly stronger territory. The shorter end of the yield curve began ...
Tue, Mar 31 2015, 10:57 AM
Amelia
Earhart was quoted as saying, "Never interrupt someone doing something
you said couldn't be done." Few thought that the refi boom could hav...
Tue, Mar 31 2015, 10:47 AM
Home
prices flattened on a month-over-month basis in January even as annual prices
continued to increase S&P Dow Jones Indices said today. The ...
Tue, Mar 31 2015, 7:34 AM
Today is the last day of the month and quarter (or the fiscal year-end for many domestic entities or the entire nation of Japan). That makes the end...
Tue, Mar 31 2015, 5:12 PM
It's rare that I'll decide to include a chart with a shorter maturity yield curve constituent in the Day Ahead. In this morning's case, that happened...
Tue, Mar 31 2015, 4:46 PM
Mortgage rates fell again today
extending a 3 day winning streak after shooting abruptly higher in the
middle of last week. That damage hasn't...
Tue, Mar 31 2015, 3:03 PM
Nationwide said on Tuesday that the overall housing market
is healthier than at any time since 2001 , the earliest point for which data is
availabl...
Mon, Mar 30 2015, 10:59 AM
Contract signings in the Midwest and South in February drove
pending home sales to their highest level in nearly two years. The National Association...
Mon, Mar 30 2015, 9:38 AM
In
like a lion, out like a lamb? Usually folks say that about March's
weather, not the economy. But economic data so far in the first quarter
ha...
Mon, Mar 30 2015, 7:34 AM
As is often the case, this week has the dual distinction of hosting 'month-end' as well as nonfarm payrolls. Until recently, the ECB was almost alw...
Mon, Mar 30 2015, 5:16 PM
For MBS, today was substantially similar to Friday, with a narrow but positive trading range and little fanfare surrounding any headline event. That'...
Mon, Mar 30 2015, 3:59 PM
Mortgage rates fell moderately
to begin the week, but haven't yet returned to recent lows. Even so,
the improvement is a relief considering ra...
Mon, Mar 30 2015, 1:14 PM
The first two days of this week stand a good chance to see the momentum driven not by the events that transpire, but by the trades that must be made b...
Fri, Mar 27 2015, 10:35 AM
I
love it when I receive an e-mail warning me, "You've had unusual and
suspicious activity on your American Express Card." I don't have an
Ameri...
Fri, Mar 27 2015, 7:34 AM
There's been a lot of talk about GDP recently, but it's important to keep in mind that most of it has to do revised GDP estimates for the first quar...
Fri, Mar 27 2015, 4:55 PM
It's that time again. Or, at least it will be next Friday. After 2 months in a row of painful NFP reactions in bond markets, the big jobs report is ...
Fri, Mar 27 2015, 4:21 PM
Mortgage rates had one of their least exciting days of the week today, moving just modestly lower from yesterday's latest levels. The trading ra...
Fri, Mar 27 2015, 2:48 PM
The old maxim that a household rents only until it can
afford to buy a home is apparently being stood on its head in a lot of housing
markets. A st...
Fri, Mar 27 2015, 1:05 PM
With the exception of only a few trades during a few minutes, Fannie 3.0 MBS prices have remained in a range of 101-28 to 101-29 this morning. That'...
Thu, Mar 26 2015, 12:28 PM
In the past five years there has been a monumental shift in
mortgage loan servicing. Bank servicing
subsidiaries, which once dominated in the mar...
Thu, Mar 26 2015, 12:13 PM
While a study released on Thursday by
RealtyTrac shows a huge discrepancy between the growth in home prices and
increasing wages, it appears that ho...
Thu, Mar 26 2015, 12:02 PM
It's been a strange week for domestic bond markets so far. Just 2 short days ago, bonds were rallying with a seeming disregard for negative cues fr...
Thu, Mar 26 2015, 10:20 AM
Fannie announced some important news to any changes in the way self-employed income is considered. Sure enough, the folks on Wisconsin Avenue (soon ...
Thu, Mar 26 2015, 7:24 AM
Will the Fed raise rates? Is economic data sliding? Are stocks and bonds more interested in trading the rate hike or the data? All of these were fa...
Thu, Mar 26 2015, 4:51 PM
Ever since bond markets failed to respond positively to yesterday morning's exceptionally weak Durable Goods report, things have been almost exclusiv...
Thu, Mar 26 2015, 3:51 PM
Mortgage rates rose rapidly today, almost completely erasing the improvement following last week's Fed Announcement. This is especially ironic consid...
Wed, Mar 25 2015, 12:14 PM
Today's trading has offered an interesting development or two. The first was the reaction to the Durable Goods data. It was significantly weaker t...
Wed, Mar 25 2015, 10:02 AM
Don't
think the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening? USA Today
reports the world's richest 1% of people control over 50% of total
gl...
Wed, Mar 25 2015, 9:09 AM
Stoked by the lowest interest rates in several weeks the volume of applications
for mortgages to both purchase and refinance homes increased by the...
Wed, Mar 25 2015, 7:34 AM
Yesterday morning, we discussed the fact that bond markets needed to make additional gains beyond recent technical floors, or risk sending the signal...
Wed, Mar 25 2015, 5:41 PM
It began as just another day in a 12-day winning streak for bond markets that had seen 10yr yields recover 40bps peak to trough. Actually, "just an...
Wed, Mar 25 2015, 3:23 PM
Mortgage rates finally moved noticeably higher today, something they haven't done on 11 out of the last 12 days. Yesterday, I pointed out that su...
Wed, Mar 25 2015, 2:45 PM
Freddie Mac said today that housing
market stability "stumbled a bit" due to the cold winter weather and softening
economic growth. The company's...
Tue, Mar 24 2015, 12:17 PM
A frequent topic of interest over the past few years--and especially recently--is the trickle down effect from European bond markets to mortgage rat...
Tue, Mar 24 2015, 11:13 AM
New home sales rose on a seasonally adjusted annual basis in
February, partially because of a near tripling of sales in the Northeast . Nationall...
Tue, Mar 24 2015, 11:11 AM
Thank you to Carol Kimball who sent along this site of " inexplicably terrible real estate photos ." My guess is that every underwriter has seen their...
Tue, Mar 24 2015, 7:34 AM
Yesterday's trading activity, while light, was a welcome addition to Friday's. The two combined to completely reverse the somewhat scary negative bou...
Tue, Mar 24 2015, 4:13 PM
While mileage may vary depending on the lender, many are getting close to levels not seen since Thursday Feb 5th, a day before the NFP report that kic...
Tue, Mar 24 2015, 3:14 PM
Mortgage rates fell again today , extending an exceptionally strong 2+ week move back to lower levels after an exceptionally weak 5 week move to 201...
Tue, Mar 24 2015, 1:40 PM
Three economists writing for the
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's Economic
Letter , are theorizing that the explosion of lending, especially...
Mon, Mar 23 2015, 12:16 PM
Bond markets are having an exceptionally uneventful morning, trading in a narrow, slightly stronger range for the most part. This was the case righ...
Mon, Mar 23 2015, 11:51 AM
Short supplies of existing home inventory continued to hold
back sales in February the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) said today, but
con...
Mon, Mar 23 2015, 11:02 AM
Today
I head off to Austin, Texas for four days of MBA STRATMOR Peer Group
Program meetings - a great opportunity to sit in a room with the MBA,
...
Mon, Mar 23 2015, 7:34 AM
Following last week's Fed meeting, we had two successive days of subdued trading, each trading "inside" the previous session's range. Bonds can go ei...
Mon, Mar 23 2015, 5:38 PM
While there is some variation depending on the part of the country and the school district, this week is Spring Break for quite a few people, and if...
