Mortgage News

Why So Much Selling in Bonds? Without a doubt, it’s been a frustrating and puzzling week for the bond market.  Everyone knows that bonds have moved consistently higher in yield, but there is very little understanding and agreement about WHY that move has […]

There’s no easy way to say it: it was a bad week for mortgage rates.  Actually, it was a bad week for interest rates in general and mortgage rates typically follow the rest of the rate market.  After hitting the lowest levels in a month and a half last Friday, each of the next 5 days saw a […]

“They say that mafia members are nasty people. But while growing up, I lived next door to one mafia member, and he was actually a nice guy. In fact, every morning, he paid me $20 just to start his car.” Membership has its privileges. “Rob, I own a smallish independent mortgage bank (IMB). We […]

Bonds can’t seem to catch a break this week.  Data hasn’t necessarily been unfriendly either with both CPI and PPI hitting forecasts at the core monthly level (not to mention higher-than-expected jobless claims). Despite that, rates have risen every day this week with the biggest sell-offs […]

Mediocre Data Has Done Nothing to Help Bonds Granted, this week’s slate of economic data isn’t on quite the same level as NFP week, but neither have offered any seriously upbeat reports. Today’s PPI and yesterday’s CPI both hit forecasts at the monthly […]

It’s been a bummer of a week for mortgage rates with modest to moderate increases every day so far.  Adding insult to injury is the fact that there hasn’t been any compelling reason for the increase as far as this week’s new economic data is concerned. Economic data is a constant consideration […]

What? You’re a builder who’s short on nails? Well, bring in some folks from Japan… they don’t necessarily need them. Of the nearly 300 types of nails made in the United States today, most are used in residential housing construction. The average wood frame house uses between 20,000 and […]

This morning’s Producer Price Index (PPI) came in hotter than expected in year-over-year terms (3.4 vs 3.2 at the core level). Traders were mostly able to look past that given that the most recent month was in line with forecasts. Jobless Claims data helped facilitate gains between 8:30am and 9am […]

Why Bonds Sold Off After a Decent AM Rally It was a day for “explanations” in the bond market with the morning rally needing to be explained in the context of CPI data that came in right on the screws and a subsequent sell-off that also seemed to happen for […]

Mortgage rates were having a pretty decent day at first.  The bond market was only slightly weaker overnight (implies some upward pressure on rates), but quickly improved after the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data at 8:30am ET.  Notably, CPI was right in line with forecasts–something that often […]