Sidetracked by market chaos so here’s my first Originations linkfest in a couple days. Most intriguing to me tonight are the S&P 500 correlations to Treasuries. As for Europe, I put the pieces in order starting with quick reads and ending with Michael Lewis’ full piece as weekend reading. Here you go… -Yes You Should [...]
Archive for the ‘US Dollar’ Category
Originations 6/29: Realtime Greek Austerity Vote Tracker
-BofA’s $8.5b Bad Loan Settlement (Bloomberg) -INFOGRAPHIC: Forex Market Basics (TradingHabits) -China’s Top Auditor Warns of Local Gov’t Defaults (Mish) -REAL TIME GREEK AUSTERITY VOTE TRACKER (ZeroHedge) -QE3 Advocate Krugman Sits Down With HousingWire (HousingWire) -A Word On Unemployment (MarginalRevolution via TheMoneyIllusion)
Why QE2 failed & why its end will bring lower Treasury yields
Some folks think that because the Federal Reserve will soon stop its daily purchases of Treasuries per Q2, Treasury prices will go down and yields and mortgage rates go up. I think this view is completely inaccurate. As QE2 ends, let’s to try to figure out what it did. Quantitative Easing-Round 2 was a $600 [...]
Monetary Policy 101: Exchange Rates
Over the next month I will examine monetary policy in my weekly pieces. To start, I am recycling this piece I wrote last July. Eternal thanks to economist Steve Hanke of Johns Hopkins University who’s taken the time to educate me on these matters. Money Supply and monetary policy are set by the Federal Reserve. [...]
How The Dollar’s Value Impacts Mortgage Rates
One can write several volumes about how movements in the dollar impact mortgage lending, and our economy in general. The value of the dollar is widely tracked. For example, the New York Federal Reserve reported that the U.S. monetary authorities did not intervene in the foreign exchange markets during the July-September quarter. But during that [...]
WeeklyBasis 11/13/2010: Alarm Bell, Rates Up .375%
Perhaps it’s early to ring alarm bells when rates are still in the 4s, but they’re up .375% since October 7-8, which means a borrower pays $110 more per month on a $500,000 loan. Back then, mortgage bonds hit record price levels on rumors the Fed would announce billions more in mortgage bond buying to [...]
What It Means When China Says It Will Relax Yuan’s Peg To Dollar
China said it would no longer keep its currency, the yuan, pegged to the dollar. Some credible sources say it doesn’t matter, but it does matter because it could cause U.S. interest rates to rise. It works like this: up to now, China has kept their currency weak relative to the dollar. This makes Chinese [...]
Secondary Mortgage Market Returning, America’s New 3-D $100 Bill (Video), More on FHA Lender Rules
Secondary Mortgage Market Returning I am continuing to see signs that the mortgage market is coming back somewhat. Not so much that guidelines are loosening, which they aren’t, and in fact documentation requirements continue to increase, but more in the secondary markets. This was demonstrated yesterday with the news that Redwood Trust will be coming [...]
Rumor: Fed May Extend MBS Purchases, US Dollar’s Impact On Rates, Mortgage Industry M&A
What Do Foo Fighters Know Mortgage Rates? Why can’t automated answering services at mortgage companies be more like the one at Nestle Crunch’s Hotline at 800-295-0051? When asked if you want to continue in English or Spanish, just wait for about 10 seconds, listen to the options and press “4”. Listen to the options again, [...]
Dollar Primer, FHA Reserves Hurting, Mortgages Down 30% in 2010?, More on Google Loan Quotes, Lots of Economic Stats
My 86-year old Dad caught me taking a nap over the weekend. Not one to miss an opportunity, he said, “You practically invented lazy. People should have to call you and ask for the rights to the word “lazy” before they use it.” That’s my Dad… Lock Desk personnel are seldom lazy, and in fact [...]
