bank earnings – The Daily Tearsheet

Morning Report: Iranians protest the government

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change
S&P futures	3277	12.25
Oil (WTI)	59.13	0.04
10 year government bond yield		1.85%
30 year fixed rate mortgage		3.88%

Stocks are higher this morning as we anticipate a phase 1 trade deal with China this week. Bonds and MBS are flat.

Earnings season kicks off this week with the major banks all reporting. JP Morgan, Wells, and Citi all report tomorrow. We will get inflation data, retail sales and housing starts this week as well. With the Fed on hold for the moment (and probably through the election), economic data will become less of a market-mover unless it is way out the expected range. Neel Kashkari thinks the next move for the Fed could be a rate cut. “If I were to guess the next rate move, my guess (on) the balance of risks, is that it will be down and not up.” The Fed funds futures agree, handicapping a better-than-50% chance that rates will get cut this year.

Iran admitted shooting down an airliner by mistake over the weekend, which has shifted the focus from the US killing a military leader. It looks like there are major protests in Tehran right now. So far, we are not seeing any big effects in the oil market, although North America uses a different benchmark than the rest of the world.

HousingWire lays out some predictions for 2020. One big one refers to recruiting. As of 11/24, originators could officially move from a bank to a non-bank or another state and keep originating mortgages while they wait for the new license. This will almost certainly make recruiting for non-banks easier.

Mortgage credit availability decreased in December by 3.5%, according to the MBA. “Credit availability fell in December after three months of expansion, driven by drops in both conventional and government supply,” said Joel Kan, MBA Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting. “Perhaps most noteworthy was a 6 percent drop in government credit supply because of changes to the Veterans Administration loan program, which eliminated loan limits for certain borrowers as of Jan 1, 2020. This likely prompted many investors to remove VA programs in high cost counties from their offerings. There was also a reduction in streamline refinance programs, as slightly higher rates slowed the refinance market at the end of 2019.”

Morning Report: Retail Sales strong

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change
S&P futures	3019	5.35
Oil (WTI)	59.54	-0.07
10 year government bond yield		2.13%
30 year fixed rate mortgage		4.10%

Stocks are flattish as earnings season kicks off. Bonds and MBS are down.

June Retail Sales came in much higher than expectations. The headline number was up 0.4% MOM and 3.4% YOY. The control group, which excludes volatile products like autos, gas, and food was up 0.7%, well above the 0.3% Street estimate. May’s numbers were revised upwards as well. The upside surprise in retail sales pushed up the 10 year from 2.09% before the number to 2.13% after. Since consumption is such a big component of the economy, expect to see Q2 GDP estimates to be revised upwards.

Despite the strong retail sales numbers, the street is still handicapping a 25% chance of a 50 basis point cut and a 75% chance of a 25 basis point cut at the July FOMC meeting. I can’t believe we are talking about rate cuts when the economy is this strong, but here we are…

In bank earnings, JP Morgan reported an increase in net income, but mortgage banking revenue was down 17% QOQ and YOY, driven by an unfavorable mark on the MSR portfolio. Volume increased 14% YOY to 24.5 billion. Wells also reported stronger earnings, with origination volume increasing to $33 billion. Margins fell from 105 basis points to 98, and it looks like they took a hit to their servicing portfolio as well.

Industrial Production was flat in June, driven by a drop in utility output. Manufacturing production was up 0.4%. Capacity Utilization increased as well, from 75.6% to 75.9%. So, despite all the concern about tariffs, we aren’t seeing it flow through to the numbers yet.

The FHA has been trying to figure out a way to bring more lenders back into the program after many exited in the aftermath of the housing crisis. The Obama administration aggressively fined lenders for minor errors which pushed banks largely out of FHA lending. The Trump Administration is changing enforcement policies and is working to bring more clarity to to the program. A number of trade groups however have argued that the reforms don’t go far enough, and don’t provide enough certainty to encourage banks to re-enter the business.

30 day delinquencies fell 0.7% YOY to 3.6%, according to CoreLogic. The only places that saw increases were due to hurricane-related issues. Flooding in the Midwest could boost these numbers in the future however. The foreclosure rate fell from 0.5% to 0.4% as well.

Morning Report: Negative yielding corporate debt.

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change
S&P futures	3020	5.35
Oil (WTI)	60.39	0.19
10 year government bond yield		2.11%
30 year fixed rate mortgage		4.13%

Stocks are higher as we kick off earnings season. Bonds and MBS are up.

The upcoming week will be dominated by bank earnings. The economic data is unlikely to be market-moving, however we will get some real-estate related data with housing starts and homebuilder sentiment. We will also get retail sales, industrial production and capacity utilization.

Citigroup reported earnings this morning that beat Street estimates. Mortgage banking revenues were down 2% QOQ and down 9% YOY.

Manufacturing activity in New York State rebounded last month, climbing out of negative territory. New Orders were flat, shipments improved, while employment hit the lowest level in 3 years.

Europe is used to negative yields on sovereign debt, with the German Bund yielding -29 basis points. In other words, you are paying 105.25 to get back 100 in 10 years, along with some interest. That is strange enough, in of itself, but how about this? Corporate bonds trading with negative yields. Don’t believe it? US jar maker Ball Corp, maker of the mason jar, trades at a yield of -20 basis points and matures in 18 months. Why would any investor buy that? Because the principal hit will be less than deposit rates of -40 basis points or 18 month German paper yielding -70 basis points. It is a fascinating study of the law of unintended consequences. The whole point of negative interest rates is to push investors to get out of safe haven sovereign debt and take some risk – specifically lending money to businesses that need it. The whole point of this exercise is to increase the amount of credit in the system in order to fuel economic growth. However, instead of providing financing to nascent businesses who could be the growth drivers of tomorrow, they are lending money to a company that makes jars (hardly emerging technology) instead.

A portfolio manager at Janus Capital explained it as follows: “A bond like Ball Corp’s is “a safe place to hang out,” [Janus Capital Portfolio Manager Tim] Winstone said. “And just because something is negative yielding, that doesn’t mean it can’t get more negative yielding.” In other words, we are in greater fool territory. Fun fact: around 2% of the European junk bond market trades at negative yields. In fact, Winstone says that about 24% of the European investment grade market trades at negative yields. It isn’t entirely irrational – money managers are making a bet on further central bank stimulus and are positioning themselves to reap capital gains on negative yielding paper, which means they could end up making a positive return despite a negative yield headwind.

John Maynard Keynes once advocated inflation as the “euthanasia of the rentier class.” In reality it may turn out that negative interest rates will do the job. Fascinating times we live in.