News and Stuff

Posted To: MND NewsWire

The National Association of Home Builders released the monthly Housing Market Index today. Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for more than 20 years, the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as “good,” “fair” or “poor.” The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very low.” Scores for each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good than poor. After recording month over month improvements in April and May, home builder confidence…(read more)

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Posted To: Pipeline Press

W.C. Fields once said, "Never try to impress a woman, because if you do she'll expect you to keep up the standard for the rest of your life." Standards are important to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), and it released the results of a study intended to "assist regulators and policymakers in preparing for expanded systemic risk oversight and enhance their ability to respond to potential future systemic risk events." Any market likes stability, and increasing it usually helps prices, and hopefully in turn, mortgage rates. So although it may not directly impact originators at the lower levels, investors should indeed take note since the study addresses hedging, leveraging, trading, etc . "The interviews focused on how the interviewees…(read more)

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Posted To: MBS Commentary

Good Morning. News from across the pond was not what I would consider "investor friendly" last night…. FROM REUTERS : German ZEW index posts first fall in 9 months, tempering recovery hopes. German analyst and investor sentiment fell in June by the most since the height of the financial crisis in 2008, hit by concerns over the euro zone's debt troubles and sending the euro lower against the dollar. The closely watched survey by the Mannheim-based ZEW think tank dropped much more than expected to 28.7 from 45.8 in May, its sharpest fall since October 2008 . The consensus forecast in a Reuters poll of analysts was for a slide to 42.0. Current conditions indicator rises to -7.9 from -21.6. FROM REUTERS : A day after admitting that some Spanish banks were being frozen out of international…(read more)

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Posted To: MND NewsWire

Equity futures are once again indicated higher this morning. The question is whether stocks will maintain momentum throughout the day, or fizzle out just as they did yesterday. Ninety minutes before the opening bell, Dow futures are up 54 points to 10,202 and S&P 500 futures are up 4.25 points to 1,090.50. The 2-year Treasury note yield is 1 basis point higher at 0.738% and the benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield is less than 1 basis point higher at 3.264%. The NYMEX crude oil futures contract is up 0.44 to 75.56 while Gold futures are up $1.20 at $1,225.70. Yesterday, equity prices rose as much as 1.55% before tumbling back in the final hours. The S&P closed down 0.18% and the Dow fell 0.20%. Key Events Today: 6:15 ― James Bullard , president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, speaks…(read more)

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Posted To: MBS Commentary

FN4.5: +0-02 at 102-18 (102.563) Secondary Market Current Coupon : 4.052% CC Yield Spreads :+79bps/10yTSY. +70.6/10yIRS. Tighter vs. Friday 5pm marks. UST10YR : +2.9bps at 3.262%. 2s performed the best, +0.004bps at 0.738% S&P CLOSE : -0.18% at 1089.63. HIGH : 1105.65 LOW : 1089.22 WORST SECTOR : Materials -0.99% Moody's Downgrades Greece to Junk Status Interest rates continued to trend higher overnight into the early lunch hours but reversed course after a Moody's downgrade sent stocks to the lows of the session. The 3.50% coupon bearing 10-year Treasury note closed -0-08 at 102-00, +2.9bps in yield to 3.262%. Those red lines are the Fibonacci Fans I overlaid on Friday. The short term trend favors higher 10yr note yields… Production MBS coupon prices benefited (directionally…(read more)

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