Tue, Dec 19 2023, 3:19 PM
Late December Sticking to The Script
The baseline is "boring" when it comes to Thanksgiving week and the ...
Tue, Dec 19 2023, 12:46 PM
Housing starts, which had risen modestly in September and October, soared last month, topping 1.5 million units for the first time in 2023 . The U.S....
Tue, Dec 19 2023, 11:28 AM
Can you sense the analytical excitement that pervades MBS commentary posts in the 2nd half of December?
It's not that we don't see flat trading at o...
Tue, Dec 19 2023, 10:56 AM
Change is constant: How ‘bout U.S. Steel, the Pittsburgh steel producer that played a key role in the nation’s industrialization, being acquired by Ni...
Mon, Dec 18 2023, 4:08 PM
As of last Thursday, the average top tier 30yr fixed mortgage rate was a few days away from being able to claim an official "7 month low," and that's ...
Mon, Dec 18 2023, 4:06 PM
Uneventful!
Through the 3pm CME close, today's trading volume in longer term Treasuries was the lowest in mo...
Mon, Dec 18 2023, 11:35 AM
Yesterday the U.S. Government took a step addressing robocalls! But in that vein, sorry for the delay in sending out today’s Commentary. I received an...
Mon, Dec 18 2023, 11:26 AM
Bonds are slightly weaker to start the holiday-shortened week (early close on Friday) and the losses happened to coincide with comments from Fed's Goo...
Fri, Dec 15 2023, 3:38 PM
Survey-based rate indices haven't yet had time to account for the massive drop in mortgage rates this week, but rest assured, it was special. That's ...
Fri, Dec 15 2023, 3:37 PM
Solid Conclusion to Superlative Week
Friday ended up being rather uneventful for the bond market, as long as...
Fri, Dec 15 2023, 11:50 AM
Any time bonds improve as much as they have over the past 2 days (and indeed over the past 2 months), there's a risk of a corrective bounce. In fact,...
Fri, Dec 15 2023, 11:30 AM
Here in Chicago, there are several restaurants that are “the place” to have afternoon tea. Tomorrow is the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. ...
Thu, Dec 14 2023, 3:57 PM
Today's headline speaks for itself: one of the biggest 2-day drops in rates in decades. Simply put, over the past 48 hours, mortgage rates have moved...
Thu, Dec 14 2023, 3:55 PM
Big Rally Just Getting Started or at Risk of a Correction?
Overseas markets added on to the rate rally inspi...
Thu, Dec 14 2023, 11:47 AM
"Pivot" is the word of the day as the Fed's dot plot and Powell's press conference are being viewed as confirmation that the Fed has pivoted away from...
Thu, Dec 14 2023, 11:21 AM
Everyone’s above average, right? This morning I head to Chicago where residents have the dubious honor of being the worst when it comes to estimating ...
Wed, Dec 13 2023, 5:03 PM
Today brought the scheduled Fed policy announcement that we've been waiting for and mortgage rates plummeted as a result. So does that mean the Fed c...
Wed, Dec 13 2023, 5:02 PM
Huge Rally as Dots Deliver and Powell Stays Out of The Way
It may have seemed that we were paying too much a...
Wed, Dec 13 2023, 2:00 PM
Recent indicators suggest that growth of economic activity expanded at a has slowed from its strong pace in the in the third quarter. Job gain...
Wed, Dec 13 2023, 10:55 AM
The Fed has a way to convey where it sees the Fed Funds Rate in the coming years via the dot plot. The bond market has a way to make its own bets via...
Wed, Dec 13 2023, 10:07 AM
“I'm at a place in my life where errands are starting to count as going out.” No one’s getting any younger, and like time marching on, technology does...
Wed, Dec 13 2023, 9:18 AM
Borrowers took advantage of lower mortgage rates again last week, seizing the opportunity, especially for refinancing. The Mortgage Bankers Associatio...
Tue, Dec 12 2023, 4:27 PM
When it comes to interest rates reacting to scheduled economic reports, the magnitude of the reaction is generally correlated with the extent to which...
Tue, Dec 12 2023, 4:26 PM
Dots, Dots, Dots, Dots
What's the most important ingredient in tomorrow's Fed announcement and related event...
Tue, Dec 12 2023, 10:14 AM
Today I head to Northern California, home of plenty of technology. The other day I went to the doctor and the receptionist handed me a tablet and said...
Tue, Dec 12 2023, 9:45 AM
The relationship between data and market movement is both brutally simple and frustratingly nuanced depending on the circumstances. More often than n...
Mon, Dec 11 2023, 3:45 PM
Mortgage rates are based on bonds and the bond market is coming off an important and largely successful week. It was important because it was the fir...
Mon, Dec 11 2023, 3:40 PM
Bonds Breathe Sigh of Relief After Auctions. CPI Up Next
It's been quite a while since we've dusted off the ...
Mon, Dec 11 2023, 10:58 AM
If olive oil is made from olives, what is baby oil made from? The regulatory framework, some would say “tangled web,” facing lenders is made from hund...
Mon, Dec 11 2023, 9:59 AM
Little has changed since last Friday other than yields being a few bps higher. The bond market still has to digest a condensed auction calendar over ...
Fri, Dec 8 2023, 5:07 PM
Surprisingly Resilient Despite Stronger NFP
Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP)--the headline component of the big jobs r...
Fri, Dec 8 2023, 4:35 PM
Heading into this week (and even throughout the entirety of last week) we were mostly focused on seeing today's jobs report for the next big dose of i...
Fri, Dec 8 2023, 11:39 AM
Bond bulls have been on parade since November 1st and especially since November 14th (CPI). Since then, we haven't seen any real threats to the linea...
Fri, Dec 8 2023, 11:15 AM
“What do you call James Bond having a bath? Bubble 07.” In different bond matters, mortgage rates will always be higher than Treasury rates, in part b...
Thu, Dec 7 2023, 4:59 PM
If you're reading this on Thursday, December 7th, it is the day before the big jobs report--the one that has all the potential in the world to cause h...
Thu, Dec 7 2023, 4:56 PM
How Big Could Friday's Jobs Report Be?
Thursday ended up being a very calm day relative to most of the recen...
Thu, Dec 7 2023, 11:59 AM
Thursday didn't exactly have any high risk events from a data standpoint with weekly Jobless Claims being the most notable report. Claims came in very...
Thu, Dec 7 2023, 10:58 AM
Time flies (see joke at bottom), and here we are at Pearl Harbor Day already. “I'm a multitasker. I can listen, ignore, and forget all at the same tim...
Wed, Dec 6 2023, 4:47 PM
Mortgage rates are hitting lower milestones like it's their nine to five recently and today was just another day at the office. The average lender wa...
Wed, Dec 6 2023, 4:44 PM
More Gains. Are Bonds Overbought?
The combination of friendly economic data, dovish comments from the Bank o...
Wed, Dec 6 2023, 12:11 PM
Another day, another set of economic reports that offer no objections to the steady bond market rally of the past few weeks. Yesterday's heavy liftin...
Wed, Dec 6 2023, 11:29 AM
Yesterday I was driving across Northern California to the coast (Gualala), and in Sacramento I asked the McDonald’s drive-through clerk (hey, only the...
Wed, Dec 6 2023, 7:07 AM
Double-digit declines in many mortgage rates helped revive interest in refinancing last week and a subsequent increase in the Mortgage Bankers Associa...
Tue, Dec 5 2023, 4:26 PM
Right from the start and with only a few days that didn't fit the narrative, November was a stellar month for mortgage rates, and December is picking ...
Tue, Dec 5 2023, 4:12 PM
Logical Response to Data. Bonds Not Looking Nervous at 3 month lows
We knew that today's JOLTS and ISM repor...
Tue, Dec 5 2023, 12:43 PM
JOLTS, the job openings and labor turnover survey, used to be a very forgettable report. On a scale of potential market movers, we've always assigned...
Tue, Dec 5 2023, 11:33 AM
My cat Myrtle doesn’t have a lot of rizz, and there are those that will argue that no cat has any charisma whatsoever. But plenty of marketing people ...
Mon, Dec 4 2023, 3:29 PM
Apart from this past Friday, you'd have to go back to September 1st to see lower mortgage rates than today. It probably makes the best sense to view ...
Mon, Dec 4 2023, 3:29 PM
A Bit of Meaningless Weakness. More Important Stuff On Deck
Bonds lost ground to start the new week, but not...
Mon, Dec 4 2023, 11:45 AM
Bond rallies = lower rates. We like bond rallies. But when rates fall too quickly or consistently, it can be too much of a good thing. That's a phe...
