Developing class action cases could corral hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs in fights against lenders who allegedly defrauded customers and employees.

A majority of recent sellers said they offered to cover closing costs, with many also buying down mortgage rates, according to a new report from Zillow.

The Mortgage Bankers Association is examining the data to see if the high ratio warrants a new push for a premium cut but said rising arrears call for caution.

Following the resignation of CEO Patrick Donlon as the result of a settlement, Yield Solutions Group has taken operational control of Trusted American Mortgage.

After piercing the 7% ceiling in January, the 30-year fixed trended lower the rest of the year, dropping 89 basis points from peak to trough, Freddie Mac found.

Token Year-End Volatility

Wednesday’s shortened session offered more excitement than the first two days of the week. There was a modicum of legitimate data-driven selling this morning in response to the jobless claims data. Bonds had trudged most of the way back toward unchanged levels by 1pm ET, but volatility picked up again at that point. While 2pm is the official early close, 1pm is the cut-off for many of the largest traders to close out their year-end positions. This makes for a big spike in volume at that time, and it can also result in a quick jolt to prices/yields.  As far as year-end jolts go, today’s was pretty normal and should not be taken as a sign of any underlying predisposition in the market. 

Econ Data / Events

Continued Claims (Dec)/20

1,866K vs — f’cast, 1923K prev

Jobless Claims (Dec)/27

199K vs 220K f’cast, 214K prev

Market Movement Recap

08:34 AM losing ground after claims data.  MBS down 3 ticks (.09) and 10yr up 2.1bps at 4.144

12:11 PM pushing back from weaker levels. MBS down only 1 tick (.03) and 10yr up 1.5bps at 4.138

01:09 PM Some quick year-end selling pressure. MBS down an eighth and 10yr up 3.4bps at 4.158

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Although Freddie Mac’s weekly mortgage rate survey (released today) suggested the lowest rates since October 2024, our daily numbers offer a bit more nuance. To be sure, October 28th and September 16th both saw distinctly lower rates this year.   Today’s rates are right in line with yesterday’s as well as last Friday’s.  In other words, this week is flat compared to Friday although the average rate is lower so far. The bond market closes early today and will be fully closed tomorrow. Bonds reopen on Friday and then will be fully open for a normal week of trading next week. [thirtyyearmortgagerates]

Human traders may be extremely underrepresented on today’s half-day trading session, but the robots/algos know what to do with a sub-200k Jobless Claims print.  Robots are also not smart enough to know that the sub-200k print is likely distorted…

The professionals can’t originate loans in their local cities for various stretches, following a federal judge’s ruling granting most of the lender’s wishes.