Wed, Aug 4 2010, 8:51 AM
As the dust continues to settle and the reality of a long, slow economic recovery sets in, one economic metric in particular will set the tone for the...
Wed, Aug 4 2010, 8:09 AM
Equity futures are trading lower this morning and interest rates are flat ahead of key employment and services data this morning. “Despite yesterday’s...
Tue, Aug 3 2010, 8:37 AM
The WSJ published a story today implying the Federal Reserve was considering the idea of reinvesting MBS prepays back into new production TBA MBS. Rea...
Tue, Aug 3 2010, 8:19 AM
The slow summer trade is in full effect ahead of what is setting up to be a directionally significant event this Friday: NonFarmPayrolls. If the Empl...
Tue, Aug 3 2010, 1:12 PM
The September FNCL 4.0 is +0-10 at 102-01 and the September FNCL 4.5 is +0-10 at 104-09. These are intraday highs. Some lenders may reprice for the be...
Mon, Aug 2 2010, 9:31 AM
The Week Ahead: Employment Situation Report, Pending Home Sales, ISM, Treasury Auction Terms, Construction Spending, Personal Income & Outlays,
Mon, Aug 2 2010, 3:32 PM
If you're a loan officer, I think the best advice I can offer is: Lock after you've gotten the file far enough to foresee an underwriting decision and...
Fri, Jul 30 2010, 11:10 AM
Rate sheet influential mortgage-backs are experiencing some localized weakness/relief. Nominally, spreads have been wider all morning but price level...
Fri, Jul 30 2010, 8:29 AM
A busy day awaits the markets as investors get their first look at second-quarter GDP. Also in the store is the influential Chicago Business Barometer...
Thu, Jul 29 2010, 8:30 AM
Equity futures are trading higher this morning despite word from Moody’s that it would have to question America’s triple-A credit rating unless it pr...
Thu, Jul 29 2010, 1:09 PM
I hinted at this observation this morning but I will expand. The last time 10s broke through 3.00%...it was during an auction week. It just so happene...
Wed, Jul 28 2010, 11:44 AM
Front-month TBA levels set yet another new record high this morning and yield spreads continued to tighten vs. benchmarks. While the street more than ...
Wed, Jul 28 2010, 8:26 AM
The September Delivery FNCL 4.0 is +0-03 at 101-15. The FNCL 4.5 is +0-03 at 103-25. The secondary market current coupon is 1.2bps lower at 3.747%. Yi...
Tue, Jul 27 2010, 8:41 AM
The S&P broke key resistance yesterday, this morning those advances are being extended and interest rates are trending higher.
Tue, Jul 27 2010, 1:51 PM
The only reason I'm not saying this auction was terrible is because yields were so low prior to the issue that it likely kept some accounts on the sid...
Mon, Jul 26 2010, 11:53 AM
The last time S&Ps moved over 1,100, the 10 year note touched 3.12%, but that was right before the Treasury auctioned debt supply in the long end of t...
Mon, Jul 26 2010, 8:45 AM
Ahead of Friday’s look at second-quarter GDP, economists at BMO Capital Markets noted that earnings results have been mostly positive so far. “Even if...
Fri, Jul 23 2010, 12:00 PM
These "stress tests" are just an exercise in improving confidence. The results are hypothetical and don't prove or disprove anything. If we were to ge...
Fri, Jul 23 2010, 9:03 AM
No significant data is released in the US, but the European Central Bank will release the results of bank stress tests. A survey of 376 investors and ...
Fri, Jul 23 2010, 3:34 PM
A mismatch between credit standards and the credit and collateral supplied by homeowners. Plus, the looming threat of a buyback always creates some so...
Thu, Jul 22 2010, 8:33 AM
Uncertainty is the only certainty and short-term tactical (non-committal) biases determine directionality. It's still a trader's world and we're still...
Thu, Jul 22 2010, 8:23 AM
Equity futures look set to erase yesterday’s afternoon losses.
Ninety minutes before the opening bell, Dow futures are soaring 101 points higher a...
Thu, Jul 22 2010, 5:44 PM
Even though rate sheet influential MBS coupons backed away from newly set (again) price levels as risk markets rallied today, rate sheets were 7.4bps ...
Wed, Jul 21 2010, 12:43 PM
Rate sheets are about 40bps worse on average over the past three days and the FNCL 4.0 is 8 ticks of the high print seen on Friday. 8 ticks = 0.375% s...
Wed, Jul 21 2010, 8:34 AM
The stock market is looking to build upon yesterday’s gain, which were partially driven by rumors that the Federal Reserve was considering the idea of...
Tue, Jul 20 2010, 9:08 AM
Stock futures are lower and interest rates are rallying after several key earnings releases failed to impress the markets. June Housing Starts and Bui...
Tue, Jul 20 2010, 1:52 PM
Just as they did yesterday, stocks are making a push higher as we head into the close. While the "flight to safety" is losing some of its luster as ri...
Mon, Jul 19 2010, 12:19 PM
Upon first inspection loan pricing looked better this AM, then I got a few more rate sheets and realized that wasn't the case. Two of the major lender...
Mon, Jul 19 2010, 10:57 AM
Rate sheet influential MBS just fell from the session highs to the session lows. The September FNCL 4.0 is -0-06 at 101-10. The FNCL 4.5 is -0-03 at 1...
Mon, Jul 19 2010, 9:06 AM
The events calendar in the week ahead focuses on the health of housing, the Federal Reserve's semi-annual report to Congress, a deluge of earnings, an...
Mon, Jul 19 2010, 4:48 PM
This BIG PICTURE uncertainty favors floating interest rates on a 45 day time line, but you better be ready to deal with added amounts of chopatility....
Fri, Jul 16 2010, 8:43 AM
Stock futures tanked after weaker than expected econ data, Treasuries are catching a FTQ bid and mortgages are playing follow the leader, albeit from...
Thu, Jul 15 2010, 12:46 PM
Production MBS coupons are trading near session highs and lenders are repricing for the better.
Thu, Jul 15 2010, 8:48 AM
From a fundamental perspective, risk markets have taken this bearishly skewed data into consideration, but that's about as far as we can go with funda...
Thu, Jul 15 2010, 7:42 AM
Stocks have gained more than 7% over the past five trading days, but yesterday the Dow inched up just 0.04% while the S&P 500 fell 0.02%. After a mixe...
Thu, Jul 15 2010, 6:42 PM
Rate sheet influential MBS got their keister kicked by Treasuries today but price levels rose enough to give lenders a chance to reprice for the bett...
Wed, Jul 14 2010, 8:26 AM
Stocks are once set to open higher after Intel beat estimates with sales jumping by more than a third in the second quarter. The computer chip produce...
Wed, Jul 14 2010, 1:33 PM
After the auction/Ahead of the FOMC minutes, traders are acting as if they expect to see bearish outlooks in the FOMC minutes.Stocks, which retested 1...
Tue, Jul 13 2010, 12:14 PM
Money is flowing out of bonds and into stocks ahead of the release of the 10-year Treasury note auction results.
Tue, Jul 13 2010, 8:31 AM
The stock market is set to open higher after Alcoa kicked off the second-quarter earnings season with better than expected results. One hour before th...
Mon, Jul 12 2010, 11:17 AM
Lenders who released pricing early this morning or desks that had extra juice built into rate sheets may reprice for the better. However, although st...
Mon, Jul 12 2010, 9:24 AM
The benchmark S&P 500 jumped more than 5.4% in last week’s holiday-shortened week. But the index remains about 3% off its 50-day moving average, accor...
Mon, Jul 12 2010, 5:48 PM
You won't notice a difference tomorrow. Lenders have been building loan pricing based on the August coupon for several weeks already, that's why I've ...
Mon, Jul 12 2010, 1:07 PM
Stocks are attempting to breakout of their recent range, benchmark interest rates are higher, the yield curve is steeper, and rate sheet influential M...
Fri, Jul 9 2010, 12:46 PM
The empty econ calendar, congressional vacation ,holiday shortened work week is coming to an end with little fanfare. Trading volumes are low and non-...
Fri, Jul 9 2010, 8:44 AM
The S&P 500 has gained 4.1%, or 42.2 points in the past two days. This morning stock futures are mixed. One hour before the opening bell, Dow futures...
Fri, Jul 9 2010, 4:50 PM
Risk On? Risk Off?
Although BIG PICTURE perspective has been the primary source of risk averse investing pessimism, the market is still dominated b...
Thu, Jul 8 2010, 9:45 AM
Stocks are apathetically maintaining recent positive progress. Regardless of a lack of investor participation and generally mixed reads on price actio...
Thu, Jul 8 2010, 8:09 AM
Equity futures are roughly flat this morning after a financial sector-led rally yesterday pushed the Dow up 274 points to beyond the 10,000 mark. Lit...
Thu, Jul 8 2010, 2:21 PM
Stocks are off week over week highs, the 10yr note is ticking back down toward 3.00%, and rate sheet influential MBS prices are approaching reprice fo...