Thu, Apr 24 2014, 3:06 PM
Mortgage rates
held were mostly sideways today. In cases where rate sheets differed
from yesterday, the tendency was toward just slightly high...
Wed, Apr 23 2014, 12:07 PM
Even before this morning's economic data, bond markets were already in slightly stronger territory. The data itself only helped, though it's a doubl...
Wed, Apr 23 2014, 7:00 AM
The first two days back from the extended weekend have been surprisingly uneventful, and that's saying something considering they were already likely ...
Wed, Apr 23 2014, 4:21 PM
It was a refreshingly strong day for MBS and Treasuries. While the gains weren't immense by any standard, they were mostly present from the start o...
Wed, Apr 23 2014, 3:14 PM
Mortgage rates
moved lower at a healthy pace today, more than erasing the past two
days of weakness, but leaving most of last Thursday's weakne...
Tue, Apr 22 2014, 12:07 PM
Stocks and bonds have been in relative lock-step for much of 2014 (stock prices and bond yields moving in same direction, aka 'stock lever'). The cor...
Tue, Apr 22 2014, 8:00 AM
Global financial markets were unequivocally still out on holiday breaks yesterday--unofficially in the US and officially in Europe. There were no m...
Tue, Apr 22 2014, 4:06 PM
The overarching caveat for any assessment of today's market activity is that the whole thing occurred in a relatively tight range. Sustained highs an...
Tue, Apr 22 2014, 2:47 PM
Mortgage rates
drifted higher for the second straight day despite a relatively flat
day for underlying bond markets. Rates pushed into their 2...
Mon, Apr 21 2014, 12:09 PM
If bond market activity is any indication, today might as well be another day of the extended holiday weekend. In fact, this is officially the case...
Mon, Apr 21 2014, 7:51 AM
Just a few short days after the ostensible deescalation in Ukraine following Thursday's Geneva talks, violence broke out over the weekend with a shoo...
Mon, Apr 21 2014, 3:57 PM
The trading day was an insult to anyone attempting to pay any attention today. Considering it was the slowest day of the year (including early clos...
Mon, Apr 21 2014, 3:13 PM
Mortgage rates were just slightly higher
today, extending a more forceful move higher last Thursday. Whereas
markets reacted to deescalating...
Thu, Apr 17 2014, 11:34 AM
Given the recent adherence to a sideways range in bond markets combined with today's economic data coming in stronger than expected, it's not surprisi...
Thu, Apr 17 2014, 7:51 AM
At the beginning of the week, we discussed the shared fate between stocks and bonds, noting that they'd been exceptionally well-connected of late and ...
Thu, Apr 17 2014, 3:02 PM
Bond markets had a bad day. The setup for this one started as early as Tuesday, when what looked like a shift toward weakness on Monday was instead ...
Thu, Apr 17 2014, 2:38 PM
Mortgage rates moved sharply higher today
on a combination of factors including strong economic data,
developments in Ukraine, and prevailing...
Wed, Apr 16 2014, 12:03 PM
Bond markets started the day in weaker territory after stronger economic data out of China and follow-through on yesterday's bounce (bonds had ralli...
Wed, Apr 16 2014, 9:23 AM
With the resurgence of geopolitical risk as a market mover yesterday (Ukraine headlines caused a big mid-day bond rally), there will be a wide varie...
Wed, Apr 16 2014, 3:17 PM
As of the 3pm Treasury pit close (the unofficial end of the day for bond markets), little, if anything has changed from this morning. Despite having a...
Wed, Apr 16 2014, 1:43 PM
Mortgage rates were slightly highe r
today as investors continued to pull back from yesterday's
geopolitically motivated buying spree. Tensio...
Tue, Apr 15 2014, 12:03 PM
Geopolitical risk is an old friend to bond markets. When prospects for awful things flare up at home and abroad, money tends to flow out of stocks an...
Tue, Apr 15 2014, 7:56 AM
Financial securities have a tendency to alternate between periods of movement and consolidation. Obviously, if something isn't moving higher or lower...
Tue, Apr 15 2014, 3:44 PM
For all the possibilities, today ended up being both surprising and straightforward for bond markets. The surprise was that Ukraine headlines turned ...
Tue, Apr 15 2014, 3:05 PM
Mortgage rates
started the day in weaker territory, continuing higher for a second
straight morning. Just after 10am, headlines regarding viol...
Mon, Apr 14 2014, 11:45 AM
Coming into the week, there were some technical considerations regarding the recent losing streak in stocks and winning streak in bonds. These se...
Mon, Apr 14 2014, 7:45 AM
Certainly the past 6 trading days (NFP Friday and every day thereafter) have been strong for bond markets and weak for stocks. The connection between...
Mon, Apr 14 2014, 4:00 PM
Nothing has changed from the Mid-Day Commentary , as MBS continue bouncing along the same lows that offered support earlier this morning. Treasuri...
Mon, Apr 14 2014, 3:23 PM
Mortgage rates finally ended a
move lower than began 7 business days earlier on April 3rd. The
biggest movement during that time was the Emp...
Fri, Apr 11 2014, 11:56 AM
By this time yesterday, MBS had already moved up 3/8ths of a point from morning lows. Activity is muted by comparison today. Movement has been in ...
Fri, Apr 11 2014, 7:42 AM
Yesterday's bond rally took markets by surprise. Granted, the proponents of the 'death cross' or those pointing to support from longer term moving av...
Fri, Apr 11 2014, 3:22 PM
Even after moving across the 3pm close of Treasury Pit trading at the CME, bond markets have continued to hold inside the same narrow, sideways range ...
Fri, Apr 11 2014, 2:18 PM
Mortgage rates managed to hold on to
yesterday's big improvements as markets held very steady by comparison
today. If there's a slight bias,...
Thu, Apr 10 2014, 12:33 PM
Earlier this morning, there was a solid 30 minutes where it looked like stronger economic data would make things challenging for bond markets headin...
Thu, Apr 10 2014, 7:51 AM
Bond markets bounced back into positive territory after yesterday's FOMC Minutes. MBS fared better than the longer-dated Treasuries (10's and 30's)...
Thu, Apr 10 2014, 2:43 PM
Mortgage rates began the day without any hint of the drama
that was to come. The first rate sheets of the day were little-changed
compared t...
Wed, Apr 9 2014, 11:50 AM
So far, the opening prices have been the worst of the day for MBS. In addition to the 12 ticks accounted for by the roll, Fannie 4.0s were another 5 ...
Wed, Apr 9 2014, 7:50 AM
Last night was Class A Settlement for MBS--aka " the roll ." If the roll causes any confusion (which it tends to do until it clicks for you), try thi...
Wed, Apr 9 2014, 4:18 PM
The day ends with something of a mixed message as Treasuries are still slightly weaker in 10 and 30yr maturities while 2-7yrs are stronger, along with...
Wed, Apr 9 2014, 3:28 PM
Mortgage rates began
the day higher, but many lenders are set to end in line with
yesterday's rates after this afternoon's FOMC Minutes. These...
Tue, Apr 8 2014, 12:16 PM
MBS traded lower during the first hour of the day but made it back into positive territory just after 9am. Treasuries have followed a similar patte...
Tue, Apr 8 2014, 7:51 AM
Yesterday, we talked about the current week being an opportunity for bond markets to reflect on the range that's dominated most of 2014 (starting Jan ...
Tue, Apr 8 2014, 4:38 PM
There were no overly interesting headlines or economic reports in today's session to guide market movements. Instead of taking cues from data and eve...
Tue, Apr 8 2014, 3:53 PM
Mortgage rates were lower for a 4th straight day
today, further digging in to mid-March levels, but by a smaller amount
today. In that sen...
Mon, Apr 7 2014, 11:52 AM
Stock market momentum isn't the only consideration for bond markets this morning, but it's perhaps the most overt . So far, it's helped MBS and Trea...
Mon, Apr 7 2014, 7:51 AM
This week marks the first major intermission for the bond markets story in 2014. The first act was intensely sideways, leading to phrases like " ser...
Mon, Apr 7 2014, 4:06 PM
Today's story isn't much more complicated than the headline. It's not uncommon to see some follow-through on Monday following NFP Friday if the latte...
Mon, Apr 7 2014, 3:19 PM
Mortgage rates fell again today,
bringing them to levels not seen since March 18th for many lenders.
While there was no significant economic d...
Fri, Apr 4 2014, 12:30 PM
Bond markets came into the session essentially unchanged after having held near the higher end of their recent range in the few days leading up to thi...
Fri, Apr 4 2014, 7:51 AM
Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) is always the biggest potential market mover on any given month in terms of economic reports. FOMC Announcements, for instance...
