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Mortgage rates have done almost nothing but move lower over the past 4 months. The first Fridays in August and September account for about half of the total drop thanks to weaker results in the jobs report. Since the September 5th jobs report, rates have held a sideways-to-slightly lower range that’s resulted in several additional […]

Today’s inflation report (the Consumer Price Index or CPI) certainly had a chance to create volatility for rates, but things ended up staying fairly calm.  There are multiple subheadings of data that the bond market cares about when it come to CPI. Most of them were in line with expectations, or close enough to avoid

Wednesday brought the first of this week’s two key inflation reports. While the Producer Price Index (PPI) is the lesser of the two in terms of potential impact on rates, it came in far enough below expectations to make for a measurable improvement. The catch is that the improvement in question pertains to the underlying

It had to happen at some point. After spending 4 straight days of setting new 11-month lows, mortgage rates finally moved higher today, but the headline is much scarier than reality. In fact, many borrowers won’t see any detectable difference from yesterday’s latest levels as the average lender’s top tier 30yr fixed rates moved a

To their credit, most mortgage lenders did an admirable job of aggressively pricing-in the bond market rally after last Friday’s jobs report. Many mortgage market pros repeat the phrase “stairs down, escalator up” when it comes to the pace at which lenders change rates. The idea is that lenders are quicker to raise rates than

Scott Bessent is studiously trying to avoid the fate of the last Treasury secretary who picked a Fed chair for President Donald Trump and now finds himself banished from the inner circle. To escape Steven Mnuchin’s fate, Bessent — who begins interviewing candidates for the role this month — must balance Trump’s demands for a

It’s a well-known fact that the monthly jobs report is more capable of causing big reactions in rates than any other economic data. It happened last month in grand fashion, and it is happening again this morning.  Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP), which is a count of new jobs created, came in at a mere 22k for

The jobs report is the most important scheduled event each month as far as interest rates are concerned. The last installment helped get the average 30yr fixed rate down from 6.75 to 6.50 because it came out much weaker than expected (in addition to revising the previous two months lower as well). The shift in

October 3rd is a date that has come up many times in the past month of mortgage rate coverage. That’s because there’s been a veritable chasm between the rates on that day and every other day since then. Why? October 4th’s jobs report caused an uncommonly large rate spike with the 30yr fixed average moving