All Things in Moderation

Vital Statistics:

Stocks are flattish this morning on no real news. Bonds and MBS are down small.

Factory Orders fell 0.5% in February, while January was revised downward to no change. Core Capital Goods Orders (which is a proxy for business capital expenditures) fell 0.1% after unusually strong readings in January and December.

Small Business Optimism increased in March, according to the NFIB Small Business Optimism Survey. Hiring indicators improved (companies added .5 workers on average), the earnings outlook brightened, and capital expenditures were steady. The only negative was an inventory build.

House flipping is back to pre-crisis levels. Profit margins are much higher however, which should provide a bit of a cushion if home price appreciation tails off. The type of property is generally older – a fix and flip – which is dominated by professionals, not neophytes. Those were the type who would purchase rights to buy a new construction condo and then hope to sell the right at a profit.

Margin compression and lower volumes has meant job losses in the nonbank mortgage sector. Nonbank lenders employed 320,000 people in February, which is a drop of about 20,000 jobs from August.

30+ day delinquencies fell to 4% in January, which is a drop from 4.9% in January of 2018. The foreclosures rate fell to 0.4% from 0.6%. Delinquency rates fell across the entire spectrum of buckets, and are at the lowest levels in 20 years. Interestingly, DQ rates for student loans and auto loans are up.

Good explainer on quantitative easing and why the Fed doesn’t want to return to pre-crisis levels for its balance sheet. Changes in the way banks manage their reserves, along with rising global demand for dollars has made a larger Fed balance sheet a necessity. The mechanics of rate setting involve setting the interest they pay on bank reserves, and in order to do that, they need a large level of reserves in the banking system. These reserves are the Fed’s liabilitites, and if the liabilities need to increase, the assets will have to move up in lockstep. Hence the need to maintain a bigger balance sheet.

Note that the equity value of the Fed’s balance sheet is largely unchanged, which means the Fed is vulnerable to a fast uptick in interest rates. This is because rising interest rates will negatively affect the value of its bond portfolio (bond values fall as rates rise). The Fed has about $3.9 billion in assets, supported by $39 billion in equity. In other words, a 1% drop in their asset portfolio would wipe out their equity. While that is a distinct possibility for their long-term bond holdings, it is highly unlikely for their short term bond holdings. That said, the Fed does operate with a 100:1 leverage ratio and historically that level has been deadly for institutions that don’t own a printing press.

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