Not Reading Too Much Into Friday's Weakness At first glance, with only one report on the calendar, it's only logical to give Consumer Sentiment credit for sparking today's bond market selling spree.  Closer inspection adds nuance.  First off, selling […]

The top tier 30yr fixed mortgage rate index rose 0.04% on Friday, which would be a medium-sized defeat in and of itself. In the broader context, however, it was an acceptable adjustment on what has otherwise been a solid week.  Specifically, today's rates are still 0.08% lower than last Friday's. […]

After a Memorial Day-induced lull, mortgage application activity rebounded sharply last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest survey. Both purchase and refinance demand climbed to their highest levels in over a month, with the composite index rising 12.5% on a […]

Hey, for you LOs who think things are slow, you can always go into golf. The best example of this is ex-LO Ben Griffin who has racked up $11 million in PGA winnings! A large number of professional athletes, active or retired, seem to live in Florida, Texas, or Arizona (taxes and climate being what […]

By 8pm last night, news of Israel's attack on Iran erased an entire week of stock market gains and pushed bond yields to the lowest levels in more than a month. Given the alarming nature of some of the headlines, it's only natural to assume that markets were only getting started with the "risk-off" […]

Thursday's Data Offered No Objection to Overnight Rally Thursday's PPI was just as tame as Wednesday's CPI and, for a moment, it looked like bonds were going to offer an encore performance of the post-CPI rally.  But in Thursday's case, bonds had already […]

Mortgage rates being offered today are only a hair lower for the average lender than they were on June 4th, but June 4th was the best day since early May.  In other words, today's average rate is the lowest in just over a month. This didn't happen by chance. The underlying bond market has been […]

“I was always a home builder, but lately I’ve developed an apartment complex.” Here in Florida, so many structures are made of stucco because stucco is fairly inexpensive, creates a great finished look, and is easy to apply to homes constructed with concrete blocks. But it can be damaged as a […]

This morning's PPI did its best impression of yesterday's CPI with the core monthly number coming in at 0.1 vs 0.3 forecast. In yesterday's case, this was good enough for a reasonably big rally.  Today, not so much.  While bonds did manage to add to overnight gains in the immediate wake of the […]

Nice Rally on Data and Auction Results Wednesday ended up being a straightforward session for bonds with a large CPI beat prompting a decently swift rally in the bond market. Shorter maturities did the best--also logical considering the proximity to the Fed […]