There was a problem returning the RSS feed.
There was a problem returning the RSS feed.

:

AM Rally Ultimately Sticks With Help From Oil

8/19/2026 3:18 PM

AM Rally Ultimately Sticks With Help From Oil To be clear, most of today"s rally is attributable to the news on the Treasury buyback program discussed in the morning commentary. Today"s consumer rate commentary also has a useful set of bullet points to recap the changes. Ultimately, the buyback news simply ...Read More

Why Mortgage Rates Didn"t Fall as Much as 30yr Bonds Today

8/19/2026 2:43 PM

Mortgage rates dropped on Wednesday due to a combination of lower oil prices and the announcement of changes to Treasury"s bond buyback program. The oil price angle is easy to understand. Throughout the war, higher fuel prices have caused volatility in inflation expectations and inflation is a critical consideration for bonds/rates.  The Tre...Read More

Hedging, HELOC, Compliance Tools; IMB Costs Still $11k Per Loan; Weak Housing Numbers

8/19/2026 10:43 AM

Everyone is racing to bolt AI onto their lending process. QAwerk"s Konstantin Klyagin says most of them are skipping the boring part that actually matters, and it"s going to catch up with them. His argument: an AI agent that can"t explain its own decisions isn"t a shortcut; it"s a liability waiting for a regulator to find it. Read on for what separ...Read More

Bonds Rally After Treasury Buyback Announcement (NOT QE)

8/19/2026 9:21 AM

At 8:30am, Treasury announced it would double the size of the existing buyback program from $2 to $4 billion for 10-30yr maturities. This sounds like a big deal, but it"s only really a medium deal. It"s not QE and it never was. Treasury has been conducting buyback operations for more than 2 years and the primary purpose is to support LIQUIDITY in t...Read More

Boring Day But At Least Bonds Turned Green

8/18/2026 3:25 PM

Boring Day But At Least Bonds Turned Green Tuesday offered remarkably of interest or consequence for the bond market. The most notable development was the brief visit to 4.75% in 10yr yields followed by the emergence of the quintessential "dip buyer" (i.e. "hey look... yields are high enough again that I th...Read More

Mortgage Rates Continue Higher Despite Bond Market Improvement

8/18/2026 2:33 PM

Mortgage rates rose for the third straight day on Tuesday with the average top-tier 30yr fixed rate moving up a modest 0.02% to 6.75%. Notably, the bond market was actually in slightly better shape compared to yesterday--something that would normally be good news for rates. So what"s the catch? As is often the case when bonds and mortgages disagre...Read More

Verification, Title/DSCR, Escrow Reporting, BI Asset Products; Disasters Shifting, as is FEMA; AI and Data

8/18/2026 10:52 AM

While Lake Powell and the Colorado River are at their lowest levels ever, and states like Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington are in a drought, would you like a short clip of what they’re experiencing in Hawai’i? So far, the North Atlantic hurricane season (June 1 to November 30) has been light, which pleases homeowners, servicers, lenders, and insur...Read More

Weaker Start, But Traders Buying The Dip

8/18/2026 9:26 AM

Big picture momentum has been calmly but clearly skewed toward higher yields for almost 10 months. There have been a few attempts to bounce at technical ceilings along the way up from 4.0% 10yr yields (4.3%, 4.42%, and 4.75%). August has been mostly sideways near the longer-term highs, but the first two days of this week have set up another challen...Read More

War Headlines Pushing Oil and Yields Higher

8/17/2026 2:00 PM

War Headlines Pushing Oil and Yields Higher Some summertime Mondays are slow and uneventful. Some see brisk movement. Today"s was somewhere in between. There was modest pressure at the outset following headlines about Iran planning to escalate hostilities. The sharpest increase in oil prices coincided with ...Read More

Mortgage Rates Start Week Higher

8/17/2026 12:27 PM

After ending last week near the lowest level since July 17th, mortgage rates are moving up to start the new week. Motivations are familiar. Escalation in U.S./Iran tensions is pushing fuel prices higher and bond yields continue to correlate. Bond yields correlate with consumer interest rates with near perfection. In mortgage-specific terms, the av...Read More

---