It is nice to see jumbo/conforming spreads – shown in gray – narrowing from their peak in February! The graph comes from Bloomberg through Lehman Brothers, and doesn’t yet show May’s improvements. Mortgage bankers have been heard humming to themselves, and seem to have a bouncier step lately. Have the changes Fannie and Freddie made
Leading Indicators
Wells Fargo posted a $2 billion profit in the first quarter on record revenue of $10.6 billion, whereas Washington Mutual, the nation’s sixth-largest originator, lost $1.14 billion. And JPMorgan Chase did better than both, reporting net income of $2.4 billion for the first quarter 2008. And poor Merrill Lynch posted its third straight quarterly loss:
Rates and commentary below are as of October 20, 2003. The Conference Board’s Index of Leading Economic Indicators was released today (the biggest economic news scheduled this week). Today’s release showed the economy cooled in September as mortgage rates rose and the tax cuts were spent. This follows huge growth months in July and August