Good Morning Everyone and Happy Monday! It is a Monday, so we almost have to have a positive day in equity markets. The Dow is struggling to hold on to this morning’s gains, but the NASDAQ and S & P have already fallen below the flat line. Last week equities were positive for the 8th straight week. This rally is truly amazing. The Dow the week previous (ending April 16th) had only eked out an 21 point gain to keep the streak alive. Last week (the week ending April 23rd) the Dow gained an impressive 186 points, or just shy of 1.7% -- a good week for equities to say the least.
Even better news than that, credit markets have remained in a trough this whole time, not losing any ground for the last several weeks. Although, we are at a new plateau in pricing and it would sure be nice to see this rally in equities break and credit markets improve. It’s bound to happen eventually. Last week’s positive rally in US equity markets got the Asian markets off to a good start early this morning – Japan’s Nikkei closed with a rise of over 250 points and China’s Hang Seng gained almost 350 points! However, US markets don’t seem to be able to capitalize on the momentum thus far.
Earnings season continues this week as we heard from Whirlpool, Caterpillar and Humana which all, of course, beat the street. Citigroup announced that the Treasury Dept will be selling off 7 billion shares of the company – probably at a discount. There are no major economic news releases of note today. However, we will have another round of Treasury auctions this week, starting with an auction of 5-year TIPS today. This will continue all week, and may have some impact on credit markets.
I will be in the office all day today… Have a terrific Monday and a very prosperous and productive week!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
Final Update/ Week of April12, 2010/ Rate Improvement
Good Morning Everyone and Happy Friday! And boy, is this a happy Friday for those of you that have been waiting for stocks to break and mortgage pricing to improve! Equity markets were ticking along just fine this morning hovering around the unchanged mark early on. It looked like this was just going to be a lack luster day on Wall Street . . . and then the bottom fell out. Around 7:30 a.m. our time, the SEC announced that they would be filing charges against Goldman Sachs for fraud. The SEC is accusing Goldman Sachs and one of it’s VP’s of fraud “by misstating and omitting key facts about financial instruments related to subprime mortgages.” Shares of Goldman have dropped over $23 a share now and financials are falling like a rock.
The impact to the rest of the markets is truly something to behold. Many of us have been looking for a correction for some time now as the stock markets have just climbed non stop for 2 months. Maybe traders are using this event to sell out of positions they felt were over bought in the first place. Anyway, the Dow is down about 150 points now, commodities are down straight across the board, and credit markets are improving. The Volatility Index is up 18.3%!
Too bad for bullish traders, because the market received some good news this morning in the housing industry. New construction of US houses rose for the 3rd straight month in March, per the Commerce Dept. Housing starts rose 1.6% in March, stronger than expected. Building permits rose 7.5%, the highest level since Oct. of 2008. However, the Reuters/Univ of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index dropped to 69.5 in April from the 73.6 posted last month. Analysts were looking for a reading of 75. This mixed picture had the market at the flat line until the big announcement was released by the SEC.
The rate sheet attached reflects the pricing as of that moment in time, but we are bound to get pricing improvements from investors through out the morning. I will be getting to you a revised rate sheet as soon as that happens. This looks like it’s a good day to lock if we start getting improvements. Monday will likely see some kind of bounce after traders get the weekend to let their heart rates slow down.
I’m here in the office all day today. Call me here or email me if I can help you with a loan scenario or a lock. Have a terrific Friday and a very restful and relaxing weekend
The impact to the rest of the markets is truly something to behold. Many of us have been looking for a correction for some time now as the stock markets have just climbed non stop for 2 months. Maybe traders are using this event to sell out of positions they felt were over bought in the first place. Anyway, the Dow is down about 150 points now, commodities are down straight across the board, and credit markets are improving. The Volatility Index is up 18.3%!
Too bad for bullish traders, because the market received some good news this morning in the housing industry. New construction of US houses rose for the 3rd straight month in March, per the Commerce Dept. Housing starts rose 1.6% in March, stronger than expected. Building permits rose 7.5%, the highest level since Oct. of 2008. However, the Reuters/Univ of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index dropped to 69.5 in April from the 73.6 posted last month. Analysts were looking for a reading of 75. This mixed picture had the market at the flat line until the big announcement was released by the SEC.
The rate sheet attached reflects the pricing as of that moment in time, but we are bound to get pricing improvements from investors through out the morning. I will be getting to you a revised rate sheet as soon as that happens. This looks like it’s a good day to lock if we start getting improvements. Monday will likely see some kind of bounce after traders get the weekend to let their heart rates slow down.
I’m here in the office all day today. Call me here or email me if I can help you with a loan scenario or a lock. Have a terrific Friday and a very restful and relaxing weekend
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Update #2/ Week of April 12, 2010
Good Morning Everyone and Happy Tuesday! Well, as promised, we are on a wild ride this morning on Wall Street. Alcoa reported earnings after the bell last night and even though they hit the 10 cents a share figure expected, their revenues were off quite a bit. Immediately after the earnings were released, a UBS analysts downgraded the stock. This news flowed into this morning’s opening bell as the Dow dropped almost 60 points right out of the gate. Credit markets responded favorably to the drop in equities and it appeared we were going to have another good day in bond land. However, equity markets have rebounded, and credit markets are holding their own.
Also, not helping the stock market this morning was the release of the February trade deficit which came in a $39.7 Billion . . . quite a bit worse than the $37.0B from last month. Analysts were looking for a number like $38.5B, so this didn’t help the mood on Wall Street. Attention turns now to earning report to be released by Intel after the bell today. There’s a busy day of economic reports tomorrow with Retail Sales being released, CPI and earnings report from JPMorgan Chase. The Volatility Index has spiked today – up 6.9% this session alone. More than a billion shares have already been traded on the NASDAQ . . . this is going to be a fun week!
Several of our investors re priced for the better yesterday afternoon, and that trend continues into this morning’s pricing. Take a look at the 30 year fixed product for conforming . . . we have (.501) rebate at 4.875% . . . nearly a 3.00 rebate at 5.375 (for N/O/O)! Nice! The Confumbo 30 year fixed product is sporting a rebate at 5% . . . question is, will this continue to be a trend? More than likely, but still, seems like a good day to lock to me. If you’d like to, please email me and let me know your lock is coming over.
I will be in the office all day as long as there are locks to be completed. I may be heading out this afternoon to go visit accounts. Call me on my cell if I can help you out in any way. Have a terrific Tuesday!
Also, not helping the stock market this morning was the release of the February trade deficit which came in a $39.7 Billion . . . quite a bit worse than the $37.0B from last month. Analysts were looking for a number like $38.5B, so this didn’t help the mood on Wall Street. Attention turns now to earning report to be released by Intel after the bell today. There’s a busy day of economic reports tomorrow with Retail Sales being released, CPI and earnings report from JPMorgan Chase. The Volatility Index has spiked today – up 6.9% this session alone. More than a billion shares have already been traded on the NASDAQ . . . this is going to be a fun week!
Several of our investors re priced for the better yesterday afternoon, and that trend continues into this morning’s pricing. Take a look at the 30 year fixed product for conforming . . . we have (.501) rebate at 4.875% . . . nearly a 3.00 rebate at 5.375 (for N/O/O)! Nice! The Confumbo 30 year fixed product is sporting a rebate at 5% . . . question is, will this continue to be a trend? More than likely, but still, seems like a good day to lock to me. If you’d like to, please email me and let me know your lock is coming over.
I will be in the office all day as long as there are locks to be completed. I may be heading out this afternoon to go visit accounts. Call me on my cell if I can help you out in any way. Have a terrific Tuesday!
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