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By Matthew Graham Posted To: MBS Commentary The Wall St Journal ran a story this afternoon suggesting Treasury Secretary Mnuchin was pushing for a compromise deal to ease Tariffs on China in order to grease the skids for trade talks. As a result, stocks and bonds lost their cool –relatively. Case in point, in the 30 minutes following the headline, …

By Matthew Graham Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch Mortgage rates were technically steady today. In fact, as of this writing, most lenders are offering slightly better terms compared to yesterday, but only by barely-detectable amounts. The afternoon brought volatility in financial markets owing to trade-related headline. That volatility isn’t moving in a good direction for mortgage rates at the moment. …

By Rob Chrisman Posted To: Pipeline Press Time has a way of slipping by. For example, I’ve really been meaning to transfer a bunch of Lotus 1-2-3 and Quattro Pro spreadsheets I have off of some floppy disks and onto my laptop but never seem to get around to it. Speaking of time passing, Moody’s send out a warning that …

By Matthew Graham Posted To: MBS Commentary Unless you’ve missed the past few days of commentary, you’ve heard me say something about the sideways uncertainty in markets as investors wait for a government shutdown resolution. There are only so many ways to say it. So I’ll let someone else say it this morning. The following is from the head of …

By Jann Swanson Posted To: MND NewsWire “The most important question in housing policy heading into the new year has nothing to do with interest rates, housing supply, or home sales,” Urban Institute (UI) non-resident fellow Jim Parrott says. “It’s what kind of director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Mark Calabria will be .” Calabria has been named …

By Matthew Graham Posted To: MBS Commentary Today would have been Retail Sales day were it not for the government shutdown. This also prevented Business Inventories from reporting (not an insignificant piece of data even if not on par with Retail Sales). Tomorrow will see the New Residential Construction numbers (housing starts and building permits) stay silent due to the …

By Matthew Graham Posted To: Mortgage Rate Watch Mortgage rates rose modestly today after spending the past 2 days moving sideways. It was really yesterday’s market weakness that caused today’s move. Mortgage rates are most directly affected by the trading of mortgage-backed securities (MBS). When MBS are weaker, rates rise. MBS were weaker throughout the day yesterday, but not by …

By cbasile@housingwire.com In this week’s Mortgage Tech Rundown, we look at a new product enhancement in Black Knight’s Expedite Close solution, as well as updates from ServiceMac and Appraisal Logistics. Via:: Mortgage Tech Rundown: Black Knight, Appraisal Logistics and more