As debt ceiling legislation passes the House and heads to the Senate, the market’s attention turns to the fact that our economy is languishing, and thus rates are moving down. Yesterday the ISM manufacturing index, which is closely monitored for a gauge of manufacturing activity, plunged to 50.9 in July from 55.3 in June – [...]

Has U.S. government debt become a safe haven for its own downgrade? Some think so since mortgage (Fannie & Freddie) and Treasury bonds still look ok relative to other global options, but that theory has yet to play out.

When somebody begins a sentence with “It would be nice if…” the right thing to do is to wait politely for the speaker to finish. No project ever gets around to the “it-would-be-nice” features: or if they do, they regret it. Wait for sentences that begin, “We have to…”, and pay close attention, and see [...]

Comparing performance of Bank of America vs. Wells Fargo is interesting study, and is much more than an $8.8 billion loss compared to a $3.95 billion gain.

Here are some tidbits for the day and some comments on MBS markets this past week: -The cost of placing ads on Facebook is rising rapidly: the “cost per click” of an ad placed on Facebook has increased by 74% over last year.

Five-time Jeopardy winner Rich Cordray will be nominated by President Barack Obama to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He is the former Ohio Attorney General (he lost his bid for re-election last November), and currently the assistant director for enforcement at the bureau. And to round things out, he was a onetime law clerk [...]

JPMorgan Chase weighed in with 2Q earnings results, the first of the “big boys” that smaller mortgage banks follow closely. The company had net income of $5.4 billion on revenue of $27.4 billion, up 7% from the prior year. Here’s an excerpt on their mortgage business:

In addition to weekly market activity affecting bonds and rates, stock performance is also of course a big factor, especially during earnings season. Here’s a chart from Bespoke Investment Group showing earnings reports by volume this quarter. Click image for a list of companies reporting this week.

-LA Dodgers File For Bankruptcy (LA Times) -Interest Rates Must Rise Globally (Reuters) -Web usage: Facebook vs. Rest of Web (AllstarCharts) -US Teachers Work Longest Hours (RealTimeEconomics) -End of QE2 Means Surge of Treasury Issuance (ZeroHedge) -Turntable.fm: 2011′s Most Exciting Social Service (TheNextWeb) -Forget Farmville, Now Your Can Sell Weed On Facebook (Mashable) -False Profits [...]

Retail sales dropped 0.2% in May, the first drop in 11 months, but economists were expecting a 0.4% to 0.5% drop so stocks are rallying on the news plus some favorable earnings today (S&P 500 +16 to 1288).