Tue, Sep 11 2018, 4:19 PM
Mortgage rates held fairly steady this morning, keeping them in line with the highest levels since early August. As the day progressed, underlying bon...
Tue, Sep 11 2018, 9:18 AM
Overnight weakness in bonds sets us up to test some more serious boundaries today. As seen in the chart below (the same chart we've been watching f...
Mon, Sep 10 2018, 4:45 PM
Perhaps traders were tired? Perhaps they are still on high alert but just haven't gotten to the week's more meaningful events yet? Either way, the...
Mon, Sep 10 2018, 3:10 PM
Mortgage rates were slightly higher today, depending on the lender . Many lenders ended up raising rates last Friday afternoon as underlying bond mark...
Mon, Sep 10 2018, 10:58 AM
Bonds/rates are in the process of defending their castle. Their way of life inside those walls could be thought of as the general maintenance of a lo...
Fri, Sep 7 2018, 4:27 PM
Today's bond market wrap is as simple as the headline. Average hourly earnings or AHE is occasionally responsible for some impressive moves in bond...
Fri, Sep 7 2018, 2:53 PM
Mortgage rates rose moderately today (depending on the lender). It was enough to bring them back to the highest levels since early August. Additionall...
Fri, Sep 7 2018, 8:33 AM
This morning's first chart is actually Private Payrolls (as opposed to nonfarm payrolls). Reason being: NFP accounts for Census Bureau hiring which c...
Thu, Sep 6 2018, 4:39 PM
Bonds were weaker in the overnight session, but only slightly. The onset of domestic trading saw a stronger contingent of traders lined up to buy bon...
Thu, Sep 6 2018, 4:06 PM
Mortgage rates were sideways to slightly lower today, depending on the lender. The discrepancy stems from mid-day bond market gains that were just bar...
Thu, Sep 6 2018, 10:24 AM
I've been pretty bearish on bonds, in general, since the end of 2016. Against that backdrop, we can of course still look for tactical opportunities, ...
Wed, Sep 5 2018, 4:45 PM
The first two trading days of September introduce a somewhat serious threat to the calm, sideways range that dominated the past 3 weeks. Granted, the...
Wed, Sep 5 2018, 3:58 PM
Mortgage rates have only been moving higher gradually , but things are adding up . Today's move brings them to the highest levels in nearly a month. I...
Wed, Sep 5 2018, 8:54 AM
Some economic reports matter when it comes to bond market movement potential, and many don't. The tricky thing about econ data is that reports that ...
Tue, Sep 4 2018, 4:42 PM
From a calendar standpoint, there were two notable features today. It was the first trading day in September--a month that often sees "something new"...
Tue, Sep 4 2018, 3:54 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher today , reversing the improvement seen last Friday. The average lender is now back in line with their highest levels of th...
Tue, Sep 4 2018, 9:26 AM
For the bond market, September and/or October often see bigger moves than the preceding summertime months. There are notable exceptions, to be sure...
Fri, Aug 31 2018, 5:36 PM
August began with bond yields moving down from 3%, effectively keeping them in a sideways-to-slightly higher trend that arguably dates back to Janua...
Fri, Aug 31 2018, 5:17 PM
Mortgage rates caught a break to end a week that was otherwise spent moving higher. Although we did see a bit of improvement in underlying bond market...
Fri, Aug 31 2018, 10:28 AM
There are a few different ways to measure volatility in the bond market, but one of the simplest is via the average daily trading range. That particu...
Thu, Aug 30 2018, 4:22 PM
While we can't really avoid talking about "the range" recently (roughly 2.80 to 2.90 in terms of 10yr Treasury yields), we can at least talk about i...
Thu, Aug 30 2018, 3:17 PM
Mortgage rates didn't move at all, again today. There really hasn't been any meaningful movement for more than 3 weeks. The same thing happened from l...
Thu, Aug 30 2018, 8:52 AM
Remember the flat, boring range between 2.8 and 2.9? Or perhaps you prefer the slightly stricter version between 2.82 and 2.88? That's the range that...
Wed, Aug 29 2018, 6:08 PM
Today ended up being the most uneventful day of the week in terms of outright volatility. In other words, bonds didn't cover as much ground as they d...
Wed, Aug 29 2018, 5:16 PM
Mortgage rates were just slightly higher again today, keeping them in line with the highest levels in about 3 weeks. The same caveat applies: we're ta...
Wed, Aug 29 2018, 8:45 AM
GDP is released 3 times over 3 months beginning on the month that follows the quarter in question. In other words, Q2 (April-June) is first reported ...
Tue, Aug 28 2018, 5:23 PM
Yesterday's bond market weakness introduced some risk of a technical shift back toward higher yields. Specifically, fast and slow stochastics (shor...
Tue, Aug 28 2018, 4:48 PM
Mortgage rates rose again today--this time more noticeably than yesterday--bringing them to the highest levels in more than 2 weeks. For most, however...
Tue, Aug 28 2018, 9:54 AM
Late June through late July saw 10yr yields trade in the 'same old range' with lows centered on 2.81 and highs on 2.89. That range was broken at the ...
Mon, Aug 27 2018, 5:41 PM
It was a straightforward trading day today. Overnight weakness came courtesy of stronger econ data in Germany and the resulting sell-off in Europea...
Mon, Aug 27 2018, 3:58 PM
Mortgage rates moved higher for some lenders and lower for others, depending on how that particular lender adjusted their rate sheets on Friday aftern...
Mon, Aug 27 2018, 9:20 AM
Even though quite a few kids are going back to school today, there's still one week of Summer remaining for the bond market. Labor Day (this upcoming...
Fri, Aug 24 2018, 8:25 PM
If you knew what to look for, today's comments from Fed Chair Powell erred on the side of dovishness--that is, they were rate-friendly. They were als...
Fri, Aug 24 2018, 7:17 PM
Mortgage rates began the day slightly higher . In fact, for several lenders, it was the biggest day-over-day move higher in more than 2 weeks. The key...
Fri, Aug 24 2018, 9:30 AM
Dear Kansas City Fed,
Thank you for hosting another year of the storied Jackson Hole Symposium. I'm not here to vent about the fact that you cou...
Thu, Aug 23 2018, 5:30 PM
Not since the eerie holiday-inspired silence of December 22nd 2017 have bonds put in as narrow of a trading day as they did today. 10yr yields didn't...
Thu, Aug 23 2018, 4:55 PM
Mortgage rates have been more or less unchanged since August 10th . That's an impressively boring streak even by summertime standards. Why does summer...
Thu, Aug 23 2018, 9:09 AM
Is today the day we break the "key technical level" at 2.82? Spoiler alert: you shouldn't care and it doesn't matter . I'm sorry if this is disillus...
Wed, Aug 22 2018, 4:07 PM
Today's gains are primarily a factor of the bond market's response to yesterday's Cohen headlines (plea deal regarding campaign finance violations)....
Wed, Aug 22 2018, 3:45 PM
Mortgage rates haven't really moved for 9 straight business days. Some lenders have seen microscopic improvements during that time, but the average le...
Wed, Aug 22 2018, 9:25 AM
News regarding Cohen's plea deal came out right as futures markets were closing yesterday. There were only 15-20 minutes for a reaction, and we wou...
Tue, Aug 21 2018, 4:47 PM
The S&P 500 hit a record intraday high today (just over 2873.22 compared to the previous high of 2872.87). In other words, it wasn't a triumphant s...
Tue, Aug 21 2018, 4:08 PM
Mortgage rates were generally unchanged again today although several lenders were in just slightly better territory. That makes this the 8th straight ...
Tue, Aug 21 2018, 8:56 AM
With yields touching the lowest levels in more than a month yesterday, there are two distinct cases to be made for the path ahead. In the more pessi...
Mon, Aug 20 2018, 5:31 PM
When it comes to financial markets, the definition for "jawboning" is a bit looser than normal as it also encompasses market movement that occurs simp...
Mon, Aug 20 2018, 4:59 PM
Mortgage rates were almost perfectly unchanged again today, meaning they haven't really changed in more than a week. All this despite a rather noticea...
Mon, Aug 20 2018, 9:12 AM
The frustrating thing about weeks that are normally vacation-heavy is that the resulting lack of volume and liquidity can leave bonds in a position to...
Fri, Aug 17 2018, 5:30 PM
10yr yields ended the week at almost exactly where they began. With the exception of Tuesday, bonds closed within 1.5bps of each other on the other 4...
Fri, Aug 17 2018, 4:29 PM
Mortgage rates were almost perfectly unchanged today. That leaves them right in line with last Friday's levels. I devoted a considerable number of wor...
Fri, Aug 17 2018, 10:22 AM
It may end up being a slow, summertime Friday with the news cycle calming down relative to earlier in the week, not to mention the fact that its peak ...
