Karl Menzer's (karlmenzer) Blog

It is a lock day on rates. Bonds are down 60Bp on the nday over news from Lehman Brothers. I will have more in todays bond report.

Unemployment came in much lower than expected, pushing th ebond down 35Bp in early trading. If your lender has overnight price protection, i would call and have them lock anything you had a contract signed on last night. More to come in the Daily Bond Karl Menzer http://www.menzerteam.com

Wednesday, June 04, 2008 It's another ants in the pants day for bonds. A lot of jumping around but no real direction.  Making news today are worker productivity, the ADP employment report and the ISM (Institute for supply management) report. Worker productivity rose 2.8% last month, a good sign t...

Coming soon to a lender near you...RETURN OF THE SISA... 100% 620 FICO, WAGE EARNER, ROLLING 30'S OK!!! Naaaa. That is what got us into the mess in the first place. The SISA has returned, but in a tamed down (somewhat sensible) version. What is allowed is 80% CLTV at a 680 FICO, on a primary resi...

Tuesday, June 03, 2008 Factory orders Jumped up a whopping 1.1% last month, much higher than the .1% expected, and giving the Dow a good boost in the morning. Banging Ben Bernanke also came out and to no surprise said that the Fed is done with rate cuts and even hinted about rate hikes. This is g...

Monday, June 02, 2008 YOU'RE FIRED!!!! And with that investors became worried about the market and have given us a small rally in the bond today.  Today the CEO's of both Wachovia and Washington Mutual were asked to step down as chairmen.  To add to bond, today's economic reports, although better...

Friday, May 30, 2008 Consumer confidence fell to a 28 year low according to the University of Michigan. This is the lowest reading since June 1980.  To make everyone happy income rose .2%, but inflation is now expected to surge 5.2% (highest since 1982). Here I thought only bad hairdo's came from...

Thursday, May 29, 2008 Bonds are getting hammered today with the FNMA 5.5% 30 yr down 85 Bp for the day.  The big winner today are stocks which meandered this morning for a while between positive and negative territory then shot up over 119 in the last 45 minutes. Moving the market today is the e...

Although pricing hasn't come out yet for the day, bonds are already down 54 Bp today, putting us in line for some pretty nasty rate hikes. If you had a client sign a REPCE yesterday evening, I strongly suggest that you ask their lender to lock if they have overnight price protection. More when th...

Wednesday, May 28, 2008 Durable Goods came in down .5% which was slightly less than the .7% drop than anticipated. What has killed the bond today is that if you exclude transportation, it came in up a whopping 2.5%. This may be a signal that businesses feel that it is time to stock up for better ...