Stocks up, bonds/rates holding in headline driven market.
Here’s all key data/charts so far this week.

Stats: CPI, industrial production, mortgage apps, homebuilder activity

Industrial Production/Capacity Utilization (September 2011) – Industrial Production was +0.2% – Previous was +0.2%, consensus +0.2% – Capacity Utilization was 77.4% – Previous was 77.4%. Consensus was 77.5%. Empire State Manufacturing Survey -Index was -8.48 vs. -8.82 last month -0 is dividing line between expansion and contraction -Fifth straight monthly contraction -Full report -Upper New [...]

Consumer Sentiment -July sentiment 63.8, down from 71.5 in June -Lowest since March 2009 June Consumer Inflation -CPI Overall Month/Month: -0.2% -CPI Core (less food & energy) Month/Month: 0.3% -CPI Overall Year/Year: 3.6% -CPI Core (less food & energy) Year/Year: 1.6% -Today’s full report -Same story we already know: Core inflation is tame. -Overall gets [...]

Consumer Inflation: CPI – Month/Month (overall) +0.2% CPI – Year/Year (overall) +3.6% CPI – Month/Month core (less food & energy) 0.3% CPI – Year/Year core (less food & energy) 1.5% Month/Month core is a tenth above “acceptable.” CPI details here. Mortgage Applications: Purchase Index – Week/Week Change 4.5 % Refinance Index – Week/Week Change 16.5 [...]

GMAC Hires Goldman To Sell Mortgage Unit In a story from the New York Post, GMAC has hired Goldman Sachs to start the process of selling Res Cap. Between GMAC being mostly owned by the government ($17 billion for 56%), and Res Cap losing billions of dollars, and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owning a sizeable [...]

‘The Situation’ On Jersey Investment Fraud If you ever thought Jersey Shore’s Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino was giving Jersey a bad name, consider this situation: Last week in New Jersey Wayne D. Puff, who ran a huge Ponzi scheme from 1998 through 2005, was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison and ordered to pay [...]

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 [...]

Once again, things turned grim in mortgage banking. First, Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker went belly up. Not only did this impact their own employees, but its warehouse problems were widespread. In addition to that, it is rumored that hundreds of smaller banks either use/used TBW’s website help in originating mortgages on their website, or sold [...]

“Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.” Crime is everywhere! According to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a division of the Treasury Department, they are notifying the mortgage industry that it is considering whether to move ahead with proposed anti-money laundering and suspicious activity reporting regulations. In other words, cash [...]