Powell Avoided Throwing Cold Water on Rate Outlook. Bonds Approved Today's gains ended up being all about Powell's press conference. While there were a few potentially friendly comments (current rates in high end of neutral range, recent job gains […]

The Fed cut its policy rate by 0.25% today and mortgage rates moved lower after the announcement. That said, those two developments are not related. In fact, there was no movement in the bonds that underlie mortgage rates when the rate cut was announced. Instead, the market (and rates) moved in […]

Seasonally adjusted mortgage application activity rose 4.8% last week, according to MBA’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending December 5. Unadjusted applications jumped 49% from the prior week, reflecting a rebound following the Thanksgiving-related slowdown. The Refinance […]

Available indicators suggest that economic activity has been expanding at a moderate pace. Job gains have slowed this year, and the unemployment rate has edged up but remained low through August; more September. More recent indicators are consistent with these developments. Inflation has moved […]

Somewhere, in a parallel universe, Mariah Carey is walking around some supermarket, sick of listening to me sing Christmas carols. This is, of course, a humorous assumption, but what isn’t so humorous is the discussion begun by the Trump Administration about assumable mortgages, arguably the bane […]

Bonds were modestly weaker overnight, but have moved back into positive territory after this morning's Employment Cost Index and NYSE. This means 10yr yields are at the bleeding edge of the 3-month range heading into this afternoon's Fed announcement. The rate cut is about as close to a […]

Wednesday is All About Dot Plot and Powell Bonds lost ground moderately and logically on Tuesday in response to the JOLTS data. From here, this week's volatility potential hinges on the Fed. Fed Funds Futures suggest that there's been no change in rate cut […]

Mortgage rates were surprisingly steady on Tuesday with most lenders roughly in line with Monday's levels. Why surprising?  Because the bond market was noticeably weaker and bonds dictate day to day mortgage rate movement. In Tuesday's case, we can actually reconcile the steadiness with the […]

“Seminar ‘How to avoid frauds’ is canceled. Tickets are non-refundable.” Collectively, we don’t want mortgage fraud, right? It’s a non-partisan issue. A grand jury rejected a new mortgage fraud indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James. Meanwhile, it must be difficult […]

Tuesday is a fairly straightforward session for the bond market.  By now, we assume most of the pre-Fed positioning would be out of the way, and we know there was a decent amount of anticipation for the JOLTS data (job openings and labor turnover survey). True to form, volume spiked to its highest […]