Mon, Jan 26 2015, 5:10 PM
After two weeks of elevated volumes and activity, today hearkened back to old-fashioned Mondays . Participation was light, market movement was larg...
Mon, Jan 26 2015, 2:56 PM
Mortgage rates were unchanged in most cases today, though some lenders were microscopically higher or lower compared to last Friday. Any attempt...
Mon, Jan 26 2015, 1:07 PM
The week is off to a fairly anticlimactic start, belying the initial volatility seen after the Greek elections early in the overnight session. 10yr y...
Fri, Jan 23 2015, 12:56 PM
You may have the market aphorism that it's easier to ride waves than to swim against them. The post-ECB bond market wave is still in force today wi...
Fri, Jan 23 2015, 7:34 AM
It would be nice if yesterday's European Central Bank announcement had come with an instruction manual that let markets know how to react and at what ...
Fri, Jan 23 2015, 5:15 PM
Mortgage rates were modestly lower today, and are now getting back in line with levels not seen in more than 20 months. Only the last 3 days of ...
Fri, Jan 23 2015, 5:14 PM
Some time between yesterday's European Central Bank (ECB) announcement and this morning's open, market participants decided to interpret the QE progra...
Thu, Jan 22 2015, 7:25 AM
Today is one of those special days for financial markets where we finally come to an event with so much hype that it's a big deal no matter how it g...
Thu, Jan 22 2015, 5:29 PM
10yr yields rocketed from 1.94 to 1.81 after this morning's ECB QE announcement and then leveled off right in between (that's 1.875 for those of you p...
Thu, Jan 22 2015, 3:34 PM
Mortgage rates didn't budge today. That's impressive considering the amount of volatility in financial markets leading up to and following the E...
Thu, Jan 22 2015, 1:24 PM
By the time this morning's ECB QE announcement hit, there was little doubt about it's existence. Bond markets spent the overnight session continuin...
Wed, Jan 21 2015, 7:32 AM
This question has come up a lot recently, so let's discuss it. What follows will be my take on it, and I have no idea if it will be the right take. ...
Wed, Jan 21 2015, 5:28 PM
Mortgage rates moved moderately higher on average today. Recently high volatility in financial markets continues driving stratified pricing stra...
Wed, Jan 21 2015, 5:23 PM
This may be the first time in the history of the MBS Commentary that Canada has made an appearance as a relevant market mover--let alone a headline ...
Wed, Jan 21 2015, 1:33 PM
Unexpected headlines have given markets plenty to digest this morning. German bond markets began pushing yields higher right from the start of the ...
Tue, Jan 20 2015, 12:02 PM
For bond markets, today has largely been about holding ground and retrenching. The most relevant example came during the overnight session--just befo...
Tue, Jan 20 2015, 7:32 AM
After trading in a narrow channel for the first three quarters of 2014, bond markets became increasingly volatile. The first three weeks of 2015 have...
Tue, Jan 20 2015, 4:30 PM
Mortgage rates were truly mixed today, with some lenders improving while others moved higher. More than a few were unchanged or close to it. Al...
Tue, Jan 20 2015, 4:28 PM
Anxiety and anticipation are in full supply as markets approach Thursday's exceptionally important ECB news. Last Friday, this anxiety took the form ...
Fri, Jan 16 2015, 7:40 AM
This chart was scaled based on everything that came before yesterday in order to see how big yesterday was by comparison. The red line is the Swiss F...
Fri, Jan 16 2015, 5:18 PM
Mortgage rates pulled back to slightly higher levels today as broader markets underwent a correction from relatively frenzied movement over the p...
Fri, Jan 16 2015, 5:06 PM
Bond markets sold off today because they rallied so hard earlier this week. That is all*.
I mean, we could sit here and attempt to assign signific...
Fri, Jan 16 2015, 1:06 PM
Global financial markets have been engaged to the idea of sovereign QE from the European Central Bank for nearly a year. After yesterday's Swiss surp...
Thu, Jan 15 2015, 12:39 PM
The following is an excerpt from of an update that appeared this morning on MBS Live. Members will have already seen it.
All About the Franc, 'B...
Thu, Jan 15 2015, 7:33 AM
Yesterday was the most exciting day in bond markets in a long time. 10yr yields made it into the 1.7's, which had an altogether different feel than...
Thu, Jan 15 2015, 5:20 PM
Mortgage rates continued relentlessly lower today, but they did so under protest. In fact, the amount of improvement on some lenders' rate sheet...
Thu, Jan 15 2015, 5:20 PM
When global financial markets are convulsing with uncertainty and anticipation, where can you find a safe, liquid place to park your money?
One ...
Wed, Jan 14 2015, 12:47 PM
It's a very simple, very awesome day so far for bond markets. The European Court of Justice news was great for peripheral nations (Italy, Spain, Po...
Wed, Jan 14 2015, 7:33 AM
By the time you read this, markets will already have had a chance to begin digesting the important preliminary assessment from the European Court of...
Wed, Jan 14 2015, 5:05 PM
10yr yields spent some time in the 1.7's today and Fannie 3.0s traded over 103. Those are two things that seemed outside the realm of possibility t...
Wed, Jan 14 2015, 4:06 PM
If you have a truly ideal credit profile and loan scenario, a few of the more aggressive lenders are quoting conforming, 30yr fixed mortgage rates ...
Tue, Jan 13 2015, 12:11 PM
With the 10yr auction coming up in about an hour, yields find themselves slightly higher than yesterday's latest levels. Their first move overnight w...
Tue, Jan 13 2015, 7:31 AM
Yesterday morning, we discussed the technical outlook for bond markets in the context of "open options." In other words, the technical studies were...
Tue, Jan 13 2015, 5:03 PM
MBS and Treasuries both spent time trading on either side of unchanged today. The swings between the days highs and lows were bigger than normal , a...
Tue, Jan 13 2015, 4:21 PM
Mortgage rates fell only modestly
today, but it was enough for the best rate sheets since mid-May 2013.
That's a new 20 month low, on averag...
Mon, Jan 12 2015, 12:26 PM
Stocks, oil, Euros, and other assets that bespeak growth and risk are weaker today while bond markets are stronger. The opposite was initially the ...
Mon, Jan 12 2015, 7:35 AM
In terms of the technical trends as of last week, domestic bond markets became more balanced by the end of the week. Before that, they were certainly...
Mon, Jan 12 2015, 5:14 PM
Treasuries were initially a bit weaker in the overnight session, but along with German Bunds, found their footing around 7am. MBS and Treasuries cros...
Mon, Jan 12 2015, 4:06 PM
Mortgage rates fell modestly again today, bringing them as close to last Tuesday's 19-month lows as they've been, on average. Some lenders are a...
Fri, Jan 9 2015, 7:44 AM
Markets don't always read from a script. Beyond that, there just aren't many past examples of moves like the one at the beginning of 2015, but so far...
Fri, Jan 9 2015, 5:16 PM
European stocks tanked today. The move was underway within minutes of the morning's payrolls data which initially looked like it might give domestic ...
Fri, Jan 9 2015, 3:53 PM
Mortgage rates moved lower after this morning's Employment Situation Report, though not necessarily because of it. After 2 days spent correcting...
Fri, Jan 9 2015, 1:26 PM
It's been a surprisingly busy morning for financial markets, and very little of that has to do with NFP. Bonds were slightly stronger overnight and...
Thu, Jan 8 2015, 7:41 AM
At this point, it's getting more and more tempting to just give up the typical pre-NFP hullabaloo. I mean really, how many more "all eyes on NFP" hea...
Thu, Jan 8 2015, 4:13 PM
Mortgage rates continued drifting slightly higher after a strong move to 19 month lows on Tuesday. The caveat is that today's rates are only hig...
Thu, Jan 8 2015, 4:12 PM
Dear HUD,
First of all, thanks for dropping annual MI. That's cool and all, but the way you're rolling this out is causing confusion. The Mortgag...
Thu, Jan 8 2015, 1:14 PM
Once again, bond markets find themselves in weaker territory simply due to the corrective forces that follow strong rallies, and once again, resilient...
Wed, Jan 7 2015, 12:28 PM
Domestic economic data, as expected, was passed over in favor of more meaningful forces. At the moment, those forces include Eurozone economic condit...
Wed, Jan 7 2015, 5:03 PM
Mortgage rates moved slightly higher today, but remained close to the lowest they've been since May 2013. The only day with any lower rates sinc...
Wed, Jan 7 2015, 5:03 PM
It actually turned out to be a rather boring day for the parts of the bond market with which we normally concern ourselves. Treasuries and conformi...
