Vital Statistics:
| Last | Change | |
| S&P Futures | 2346.0 | 8.8 |
| Eurostoxx Index | 377.5 | 1.1 |
| Oil (WTI) | 52.4 | 0.0 |
| US dollar index | 89.7 | |
| 10 Year Govt Bond Yield | 2.20% | |
| Current Coupon Fannie Mae TBA | 103.15 | |
| Current Coupon Ginnie Mae TBA | 104.3 | |
| 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage | 3.97 |
Stocks are rebounding this morning after yesterday’s big sell-off. Bonds and MBS are down small.
Mortgage applications fell 1.8% during a holiday-shortened week. Purchases were down 3% while refis rose .2%. Note that the 10 year yield fell 15 basis points last week, so we should continue to see follow through in refis.
The 10 year bond yield slipped below 2.2% yesterday, hitting the lowest point since the immediate post-election rate rise. The Trump reflation trade is unwinding as the market reckons that nothing is going to get done in Washington, which is probably a safe bet at this point.
While the rest of the world frets about what will happen when the Fed starts shrinking its balance sheet (can we call it quantitative tightening?), there is one sector that is surprisingly sanguine: the mortgage REITs. American Capital Agency and Annaly Capital are both up some 18% since rates peaked in December. Yes, some of that is simply the natural correlation between MREITs and bond prices, however this also comes as the Fed discusses unwinding its balance sheet. If REIT investors were worried that decreased demand for mortgage backed securities would affect the value of their portfolios, you would expect to see it in their stock prices. So far, they are shrugging it off. For originators, this means that mortgage spreads to Treasuries should be safe as well, which is good news. Meanwhile, the homebuilders continue to move higher, despite the disappointing housing starts we have been seeing. Building permits are still depressed as well, so there isn’t any indication the tight inventory situation is going to change.
CFPB Chairman Richard Cordray is supposedly pondering a run for the Governor of Ohio. If so, his days at the CFPB could be numbered.
The digital mortgage is only going to become more and more common. Here is how lenders should approach it. Punch line: the programmers need to focus on the consumer experience as much as the back end functionality.
Since housing prices bottomed, condo price appreciation has outstripped single family residence appreciation. Historically that has not been the case, as there is generally more demand for SFR. My guess is that condo prices are more volatile than SFR prices, and that they declined more in the sell-off and are now increasing faster in the rebound. There probably isn’t any secular change going on, although many are quick to point out that the Millennials (so far at least) prefer living in urban areas.
Filed under: Economy, Morning Report |
Good Piece:
“How Late-Night Comedy Fueled the Rise of Trump
Sneering hosts have alienated conservatives and made liberals smug.
Caitlin Flanagan
May 2017 Issue”
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/05/how-late-night-comedy-alienated-conservatives-made-liberals-smug-and-fueled-the-rise-of-trump/521472/
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My in-laws, honest but blinkered progressives, think that late night TV mocked obama more than Trump or W.
RIght and left now inhabit completely different worlds.
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” one filled with the poisonous nectar of reality TV and its baseless values”
and we’re shocked that a giant asshole got elected?
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That would be her point.
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Love this line: “In other words, they see exactly what Donald Trump has taught them: that the entire media landscape loathes them, their values, their family, and their religion. It is hardly a reach for them to further imagine that the legitimate news shows on these channels are run by similarly partisan players—nor is it at all illogical”
And she is being hopelessly naive if she thinks that isn’t how things are actually run. Heck, Trevor Noah’s NYT piece said the network’s explicit marching orders were to eviscerate all enemies of liberalism and progressivism. I wonder if those orders came from Sumner Redstone himself… Wouldn’t doubt it.
And conservatives knew this long before DJT came onto the scene…
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Interesting:
“A youth revolt in France boosts the far right
Marine Le Pen’s hopes of winning the presidency may rest on her appeal among the young”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/world/2017/04/19/a-youth-revolt-in-france-boosts-the-far-right/
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Got to love the left:
“The Left Must Save Labour
Richard Seymour
The British left’s task isn’t to win the next general election — it’s to fight for the survival of the Labour Party itself.”
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/04/jeremy-corbyn-labour-party-theresa-may-snap-election/
Winning the election is secondary to keeping control of the party.
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How to show your misunderstanding of what a bubble actually is:
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/04/are-we-really-housing-bubble
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Leftist polemicists are probably the last people you should get investment advice from…
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This is fantastic!
http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/19/dnc-spokeswoman-promotes-theory-that-russia-has-dirt-on-chaffetz/
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http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/20/news/gm-venezuela-plant-seized/
call it a reverse bailout.
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feel the bern
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