Fed – The Daily Tearsheet

Morning Report: Durable goods disappoint

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change
S&P futures	3010	7.25
Oil (WTI)	56.09	0.04
10 year government bond yield		1.77%
30 year fixed rate mortgage		4.03%

Stocks are higher this morning as earnings continue to come in. Bonds and MBS are down small.

Durable goods orders disappointed as trade fears and global economic weakness weighs on the manufacturing sector. The headline number was down 1.1%, versus expectation of a 70 basis point drop. Much of the weakness was driven by a drop in aircraft, probably related to the issues with the Boeing 737 Max. Ex-transportation, orders were down .3%. Most worrisome was the drop in core capital goods, which is a proxy for business capital expenditures and signals that business is concerned about future growth. You can see the deceleration in growth in the chart below:

Initial Jobless claims fell to 212,000, which is a historically strong number. So despite the weakness in the manufacturing sector, the labor market remains relatively robust.

Delinquencies ticked up marginally in September to 3.53%, but are down 11.2% from a year ago. Foreclosure starts came in at 39,400 which is up about 9%, but still down a YOY basis. Prepay speeds are still elevated, up 121% from a year ago. With high prepay speeds, you can expect to see weakness in the higher coupon MBS, which is why increasing the loan rate doesn’t buy the borrower much in terms of adding lender credits. It also makes loans with lots of Fannie Mae adjustments (investment, cash out etc) almost impossible to get a par rate.

The Fed is increasing the amount of liquidity in the system, possibly as a result of the cash crunch last month in the repo markets. “It’s just more evidence the Fed will not back off as year-end gets closer,” said Mike Schumacher, global head of rate strategy at Wells Fargo Securities. “The Fed wants to take out more insurance. You had repo pick up last week. That might not have gone over too well.” Separately, the Fed funds futures are pricing in a 94% chance of a rate cut next week.

Morning Report: August recession trade gets smashed and Fannie adjusts pricing

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change
S&P futures	2987	-2.25
Oil (WTI)	58.05	-0.04
10 year government bond yield		1.70%
30 year fixed rate mortgage		3.96%

Stocks are flattish as trade progress was offset by weakness in overseas economies. Bonds and MBS are up.

Global bond yields are falling this morning after a dismal ISM manufacturing reading for Germany. The Bund is down 5.5 basis points to negative 57 bps, which is pulling down US Treasury yields. We have a big week of data, with home prices tomorrow, new home sales on Wednesday, GDP on Thursday, and Personal Incomes / Spending on Friday. We will also have Fed-speak every day except Tuesday.

The NY Fed addd $50 billion in cash to the markets this morning to ease pressure in the overnight repo markets. A shortage of cash last week pushed overnight repo rates to 10% last week. Mortgage Backed security repo rates spiked last week along with Treasuries, but MBS are now back to normal levels. A rise in MBS repo rates can make leveraged bets in MBS more expensive (this really affects mortgage REITs) and will therefore make them require a higher return, which means higher mortgage rates, at least at the margin.

Note that Fannie Mae has also reportedly backed off its pricing last week, especially at the higher note rates in response to pressure from regulators. These changes went into effect on Thursday. Reportedly, the increase was in the 25 basis point range on average, but it was lower at the 3% note rates and up to 50 basis points higher up in the stack. From the chatter I am hearing Freddie adjusted as well, but not as dramatically. What does this mean? Pricing for investment properties will be hit hard, and borrowers are not getting paid much to buy up the rate.

The MBA made its recommendations to the CFPB over how to best deal with the GSE patch. The MBA recommends that the CFPB scrap the 43% debt to income ratio standard and pursue a more holistic method of determining a borrower’s ability to pay. The MBA lays out a number of recommendations for how to de-emphasize the importance of DTI. The GSE patch is set to expire in January 2021.

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index showed an uptick in activity during August. Production-related indices drove the increase, while employment-related indicators were flat. Many traders who were making recessionary bets (short stocks / long bonds) earlier in the summer (based on trade fears) found themselves on the wrong side of the boat this month. The S&P 500 is flirting with all-time highs, and the 10 year bond yield backed up nearly 30 basis points since the start of the month. The CBOE volatility index (VIX) has fallen from 25 in early August to around 15, which is historically a benign level.

Morning Report: Strong ADP jobs report

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change
S&P futures	2963	25.25
Oil (WTI)	56.12	0.14
10 year government bond yield		1.53%
30 year fixed rate mortgage		3.7%

Stocks are up this morning after China and the US supposedly have scheduled an October meeting. Bonds and MBS are down on the risk-on trade.

We have quite a bit of strong data this morning, starting with the ADP jobs report, which came in at 195,000. This was much higher than the 149k the Street was looking for, and the 158k expected for tomorrow’s jobs report. This was the highest number in 4 months. Manufacturing added 8,000 jobs, so we aren’t seeing any sort of trade-driven pull-back in that sector. Construction added 6,000 jobs. Where are jobs shrinking? tech and mining.

Challenger and Gray released their layoffs report, which backed up the ADP report of job cuts in tech. The layoff report is based on press releases, not actual job cuts. US employers announced 53,480 job cuts last month, of which 10,000 were due to trade war issues. That said, most of the job cuts were in retail. “Employers are beginning to feel the effects of the trade war and imposed tariffs by the U.S. and China. In fact, trade difficulties were cited as the reason for over 10,000 job cuts in August,” said Andrew Challenger, Vice President of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. “We are continuing to see investor concerns shaking confidence in the market, and employers appear to be cutting workers in response to a slowdown in demand for their products and services,” he added.

In other economic data, productivity in the second quarter was unchanged at 2.3% and unit labor costs were revised upward to 2.6%. The Street was expecting a downward revision in productivity. Hourly compensation was revised upward to a 4.9% increase. Initial jobless claims came in at 216k.

We had a slew of Fed-speak yesterday, with a wide range of opinions, from John Williams of the NY Fed avoiding the dovish bent versus St. Louis President James Bullard advocating for 50 basis points. FWIW, the market is virtually unanimous in its forecast of a 25 basis point cut at the September 17-18 meeting.

Despite falling rates and rising home prices, bidding wars for properties hit an 8 year low in August, according to Redfin. “Despite remaining near three-year lows, mortgage rates have failed to bring enough buyers to the market to rev up competition for homes this summer,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. “Recession fears have been enough to spook some would-be buyers from making the big financial commitment of a home purchase. But assuming a recession doesn’t arrive this fall or winter, consumers will likely adjust to the new ‘normal’ of continued volatility in the stock and global markets, and the people who need and want to make a move will take advantage of low mortgage rates. As a result, I still expect homebuying competition to pick back up in the new year.”

Morning Report: New home sales surprise on the upside

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change
S&P futures	2786.75	-4
Eurostoxx index	376.51	0.03
Oil (WTI)	56.07	0.4
10 year government bond yield		2.70%
30 year fixed rate mortgage		4.43%

Stocks are lower this morning on no real news. Bonds and MBS are up.

The economy added 183,000 jobs in February, according to the ADP Employment Survey. The Street is looking for about 180,000 additions in Friday’s employment situation report, so the ADP numbers seem to be in line.

Mortgage applications decreased 2.5% last week as purchases fell by 2.6% and refis fell 2%. The typical mortgage rate rose by 2 basis point to 4.67%.

The ISM non-manufacturing index expanded in February, which means that the services sector is picking up momentum. The biggest issues seem to be potential trade issues, labor shortages and trucking costs.

New Home Sales rose by 621,000 in December. This is up 3.7% from the downward-revised November number, but down 1.5% from a year ago. For the full year, 622,000 homes were sold, which is slightly higher than the 613,000 sold in 2017. The median price was $318,000, while the average price was $377,000. The median sales price has been declining over the past year after peaking in November 2017 at $343,400. This demonstrates the shift from luxury to entry-level home construction to meet demand. This is a reversal of the early years of the crisis, when the luxury end of the market was the only part that was working.

Note that new home sales are about where they were during the 60s – 80s. Pretty amazing when you take into account that the US population has increased by close to 60% since 1970.

Here is a copy of the letter that NAR, MBA, and a host of other housing advocates sent to Joseph Otting, Acting Director of the FHFA regarding GSE reform. It urges FHFA to go slow, work to maintain the 30 year fixed rate mortgage, and allow the GSE’s to act as a counter-cyclical buffer.

The Fed is catching up to the markets. Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said it could be “several meetings” before the Fed gets enough clarity on the economy to make a move in interest rates. In many ways, he is acknowledging what the Fed Funds futures have been saying for a while now – that the Fed is going to wait and see how the 2018 hikes affect the economy before making any further moves. Since monetary policy generally acts with a 9 – 15 month lag, it means that the economy still hasn’t factored in the Sep and Dec hikes from last year.

Morning Report: Existing Home Sales fall

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change
S&P futures	2856	-5.75
Eurostoxx index	383.91	-0.25
Oil (WTI)	67.32	0.89
10 Year Government Bond Yield		2.82%
30 Year fixed rate mortgage		4.58%

Stocks are modestly lower this morning after Paul Manafort was found guilty and Michael Cohen copped a plea. Bonds and MBS are flat.

Paul Manafort was found guilty of fraud and tax charges and there was a mistrial on the other charges. Nothing was found on the Russian front. Ex Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pled guilty to FEC violations, which relates to the Stormy Daniels case. Whether this ends up getting legs remains to be seen. FWIW, the markets are saying it is no big deal.

We will get the FOMC minutes today at 2:00 pm. Given the lack of liquidity in the markets, we could see some market movement in what should otherwise be a non-event.

Mortgage applications rose for the first time in 6 weeks as purchases rose 3% and refis rose 6%. Overall they rose 4.2%. Mortgage rates were unchanged, so that is a surprising jump in refi activity. Given that the index is sitting at lows not seen since the turn of the century, it doesn’t take much of a bump in activity to move the index.

Existing home sales fell again for the fourth month in a row. They fell 0.7% on a MOM basis and are down 1.5% on a YOY basis. This is the fifth straight month of YOY declines. It looks like much of the decline was attributable to weakness in the Northeast. The median house price rose 4.5% to 269,600. Current estimates of median income are around 61,500, so that puts the median house to median income ratio around 4.4x. While other measures of housing affordability remain decent, this one is flashing red for valuations overall. The MP / MI ratio ignores interest rates, which are the biggest determinant of affordability, but over time house prices correlate with incomes, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see home prices begin to take a breather.

Median House Price to Median Income Ratio

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell assured Senator Tim Scott that the Fed remains independent despite the jawboning from Trump. Powell said in a radio interview: “We do our work in a strictly nonpolitical way, based on detailed analysis, which we put on the record transparently, and we don’t … take political considerations into account,” Powell told the radio show. “I would add though that no one in the administration has said anything to me that really gives me concern on this front.” Separately, Dallas Fed Chairman Robert Kaplan said that the Fed only needs to hike 3 or 4 more times to get to neutral.