Morning Report: Bank earnings coming in

Posted on January 16, 2019 by Brent Nyitray

Vital Statistics:

 

Last Change
S&P futures 2609 2
Eurostoxx index 347.72 0.2
Oil (WTI) 51.15 0.64
10 year government bond yield 2.74%
30 year fixed rate mortgage 4.44%

 

Stocks are flattish as bank earnings continue to come in. Bonds and MBS are down.

 

Inflation at the wholesale level declined 0.2% MOM and rose 2.5% YOY. Ex-food and energy, it rose 0.1% MOM and 2.3% YOY. Rising food prices more than offset declines in energy. More and more strategists are thinking the Fed will stand pat: “We expect the Fed to sit tight until June, and odds are rising that it could be an even longer pause given the absence of an acceleration in inflation, past tightening in financial market conditions, slowing in the global economy and uncertainty surrounding geopolitical events,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

 

Mortgage applications jumped 13.5% last week as rates fell to the lowest levels in 9 months. Purchases rose 9% while refis rose 19%.

 

Last week United Wholesale announced that they were removing most LLPAs from their loans in order to guarantee the best rate. Yesterday cross state rival Quicken announced they would cut pricing as well to compete. We have a wholesale price war in Amityville.

 

Wells Fargo announced earnings that disappointed the street as revenues declined. Mortgage banking volumes were down 28% on a YOY basis. Despite a flattening yield curve, net interest margins were flat with Q3 at 2.94%.

 

JP Morgan reported a sequential drop in revenues as well, however earnings were up smartly. There is some tax cut noise in the numbers however. The mortgage business had a rough go of it as originations fell 30% to $17.4 billion.

 

Fitch sees a stable mortgage market in 2019, after a 9% decline in 2018. Good news: delinquencies and arrears continue to fall. Bad news: lack of affordability will depress origination.

 

Kansas City Fed Head Esther George thinks now would be a good time to pause in the normalization process. FWIW, she doesn’t think we are quite at “neutral” yet but we are close. Note that she is on the hawkish end of the spectrum.

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