A tour of the technology that banking has run on, dating back to Franklin’s anti-counterfeit measures and the bank-note bulletin that preceded American Banker.

President Donald Trump said a bipartisan housing bill he has refused to sign was “fine,” seeming to suggest it could become law even as he has withheld his signature in a bid to secure a voter identification law he sees as a bigger priority.

The vote to approve the $12 per share deal, which rejected a hostile bid from UWM Holdings, came following several postponements of a special meeting.

Issuances of new HECM-backed securities dropped off in June on both a monthly and yearly basis, according to a new report from New View Advisors.

The government-sponsored enterprise clamped down on project review requirements and certain factory-built home appraisals while loosening other guidelines.

A mortgage customer claims his data was compromised in a hack last year at a tax and accounting firm reportedly used by the wholesale giant.

The June jobs report is creating an overhang on economist forecasts for interest rates going forward, especially when combined with recent inflation data.

Not Reading Too Much Into Late Day Reversal

Bonds rallied quickly in response to this morning’s jobs report and pressed to even stronger levels by mid-day. That’s the point in the day that most traders (the ones actually working) consider bonds to be “closed.” You’re free to do the same and count today as a win. But in the noon-2pm hour, a decent chunk of the AM gains were erased. We wouldn’t read too much into those and instead view them as a facet of pre-holiday-weekend illiquidity and/or position squaring. This doesn’t imply directionality in the future. It just means we have to wait for next week to get a clean read on market sentiment.

Econ Data / Events

Average earnings mm (Jun)

0.3% vs 0.3% f’cast, 0.3% prev

Continued Claims (Jun)/20

1,814K vs 1810K f’cast, 1821K prev

Jobless Claims (Jun)/27

215K vs 220K f’cast, 215K prev

Non Farm Payrolls (Jun)

57K vs 110K f’cast, 172K prev

Participation Rate (Jun)

61.5% vs — f’cast, 61.8% prev

Unemployment rate mm (Jun)

4.2% vs 4.3% f’cast, 4.3% prev

Market Movement Recap

08:25 AM Weaker overnight with 10yr up 2bps at 4.502 and MBS down an eighth.

08:31 AM Moving back into positive territory after jobs report. MB now unchanged and 10yr down 1bp at 4.47

12:16 PM MBS up 5 ticks (.16) and 10yr down 1.2bps at 4.469

01:48 PM weakest post-data levels with 10yr up 1bp at 4.49 and MBS now unchanged. 

Today is a half day for financial markets, which is a typical feature of a federal holiday weekend. Because tomorrow is fully closed, the big jobs report (normally a Friday affair) was instead released this morning. It ended up helping rates move lower. The jobs report (officially “The Employment Situation”) measures new jobs created (or lost) each month in addition to the unemployment rate. The job count was much weaker than expected and, although the unemployment rate technically dropped, it did so for the wrong reasons (fewer people considered themselves part of the workforce). In fact, if we adjust for labor force participation, unemployment actually moved higher. The jobs report is the most important economic data as far as bonds are concerned. And because bonds dictate rates, there’s a clear connection to the mortgage world. Weaker jobs data = lower rates, all else equal. Today was no exception with MND’s 30yr fixed rate index erasing most of yesterday’s spike. 

Home price appreciation remained subdued in April, as the latest data from both FHFA and the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Home Price Indices continued to point to a housing market with little overall momentum. While annual price growth improved modestly from the prior month in both reports, elevated mortgage rates and ongoing affordability challenges continued to keep appreciation well below historical norms. FHFA reported that U.S. house prices declined 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis in April, marking the first monthly decline since last summer. March’s gain was also revised higher to 0.2% . Despite the monthly pullback, national home prices were still 2.0% higher than one year earlier, a slight improvement from March’s annual pace. Regional results remained highly uneven. Among the nine census divisions, monthly price changes ranged from a 1.0% increase in New England to a 0.8% decline in the Mountain division. On an annual basis, the East North Central division continued to lead with 4.4% appreciation, while the Pacific division posted the weakest annual gain at just 0.2% . The S&P Cotality Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index painted a similar picture. The national index rose 0.8% year over year in April, up slightly from March’s 0.7% increase. Annual gains also strengthened modestly in the major metro composites, with the 10-City Composite rising 1.8% and the 20-City Composite increasing 1.1% .