The Chicago 77

30 September 2009 ? The monthly ADP Report, which gives us a look at the private sector job market showed private employers cut 254,000 jobs in September, worse than the 200,000 which was expected. This release, as I have mentioned in the past, does not always match up with the Labor Department?s official Jobs Report, […]

28 September 2009 ? The mortgage bonds were down 12bps this morning, but are currently up 12bps. Trading has been light today because of the high Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. There are no economic reports today and there are no Treasury auctions scheduled for this week. Friday the Jobs Report will be released […]

25 September 2009 ? Today the bond market opened up 3bps and continued to improve and is currently at 15bps. Durable Goods Orders for August unexpectedly fell 2.4% for the largest decline since January. This was a big miss from projections, as mentioned in previous updates, the increase in orders may have been inventories falling […]

24 September 2009 ? Mortgage bonds are higher this morning after the bonds had an extremely volatile day yesterday. The overall effect on bonds for yesterday were a light drop, which was a result of the poor treasury auction as I mentioned in Monday?s update. The bonds recovered when the Fed statement was released and […]

21 September 2009 ? Today the bond market opened up 16 bps and we are currently up 22 bps. Stocks are down 50 points, which is giving the bond market a lift today. Further weighing on stocks is the increasing tension in the Middle East. If fighting were to break out between Israel and Iran, […]

17 September 2009 ? Today the bond market opened up 25bps. It has kept going strong and currently is up 41bps. Housing starts for August rose to 598,000, which is better than the 583,000 that was expected. It’s the highest number of starts since last November. We are not out of the woods yet, however […]

15 September 2009 ? Mortgage Bonds opened down 28 bps. They are currently down 6bps as a result of some economic reports today. The bonds have been affected by much higher than expected wholesale prices, which can be a sign of inflation. The Producer Price Index (PPI…a measurement of inflation) rose 1.7% at the wholesale […]

10 September 2009 ? The bond market is enjoying a nice rally right now and we should see rates improve this afternoon this is due to today?s $12 billion 30-year bond auction. The auction received an A+ rating from CNBC?s Rick Santelli. No major reports are due out again until Tuesday, September 15th which is […]

08 September 2009 ? Today the bonds opened up 3bps and continued to improve. The 3-year Treasury notes of $38 billion went to auction and were a huge success with an ?A? Grade. This gave a boost to the bond market and we are now up 22bps. Stocks tried to rally this morning and that […]

04 September 2009 ? Today the bonds opened down 3bps and have continued to slide this afternoon. We are down 25bps. The unemployment figure jumped to 9.7%, which is up from 9.4% as expected. The unemployment rate has doubled since the beginning of the recession in 2007. The job losses were reported at 216,000 versus […]

The first-time-buyer tax credit of $8,000 is scheduled to end effective December 1st, 2009, however the transaction must close by November 30th, 2009. This will impact both real estate agents and first time buyers. Realtors® and buyers may not realize the month of November is notoriously slow for underwriting as many companies are working at […]

03 September 2009 ? Today the bond market opened down 16bps and are currently down 16bps. Rates have not moved?they are still at 4.875% on the 30 year and 4.375% on the 15 year for the well qualified buyer (Single Family Home, 740+ credit, 40% down). The stock market tried to stage a rally this […]

01 September 2009 ? This morning mortgage bonds opened up 3bps, then went on a turn for the worse as stocks rallied. However the stock market rally was brief and now the Dow is down 161. This is a significant reduction to the stock market, so bonds rebounded nicely and are now up 16bps. There […]