Extended Stimulus, Unemployment Claims, New Homes Selling
Brief conversation with Gary Cohn, former executive of Goldman Sachs and former advisor to President Trump. When asked what he would advise on the economy: ‘We need an all-hands-on-deck virus stop methodology. That would be the most important thing we could do right now because instead of going through this cycle of stopping and starting…Once […]
Century Bond, Jobless Claims, Home Sales
Austria is issuing its 2nd 100-yr bond with a yield of 0.88%. Why would anyone want to put money away for 100 year for such paltry returns? One reason is capital appreciation if you believe rates will continue to go down. For example if the rate of that yield decreased to 0.44% theoretically you could […]
WFH, Strong Purchase Applications, Rates Flat
WFH – the percentage of people working from home in the US increased from 15% to 50% in the last month. If your company offered WFH you had a 33% lower chance of being laid off during covid-19. Of course in the WFH environment team cohesion and creativity can suffer. As more companies shift to […]
Back Open? Unemployment, Appreciation, Tepid Rates.
After 97% of the country implemented some type of ‘stay at home’ guidance in various states businesses began to reopen this week. The question of how to reopen safely and at what capacity is a fine line people will be negotiating. Rates – the price of Mortgage Backed Securities fluctuated nominally during the month of […]
SGN, Rates Horizontal, Forbearance Update
Rates – moved sideways this week as the Fed closely monitors the amount of Mortgage Backed Securities they are purchasing in an effort to stabilize the mortgage rate environment. Jobs – the number of people that filed for unemployment this week was 800K less than last week. IN 4 weeks over 23M people have claimed […]
Back to Work? 22M Jobless Claims & Forbearance
Covid-19 – worldwide countries, states, counties and cities weigh the cost of opening back up the economy versus maintaining social distancing/shelter in place. Texas announced they will re-open with a clear plan: 4/20: State Parks – masks required, groups more than 5 prohibited, maintain social distance4/22: surgery restrictions lifted4/24: all retail stores open limited to […]
Pandemic Trade, Unemployment Claims, Fed Stimulus
Hospitals, adult care facilities, essential workers, and the public at large (especially individuals with comorbidities) are in dire need of face masks. I interviewed a college friend who lives in Nanjing and is now on the other side of the curve. He does import/export and leveraged his shipping connections to source face masks for friends and hospitals. […]
Conservative Guidelines, Stable Bond Market, Jobless Claims Double
Guidelines – First the positives: e-notarization should be coming soon in Oregon. A written bill has been languishing and the opportunity is finally ripe! Sometimes it takes a crisis to spark cooperation. Currently it is easier to get an appraisal waiver and in certain areas it is also possible to go with a Desktop or […]
Virtual Interaction, Stimulus Package, Jobless Claims
Many people are turning to the plethora of free software like Zoom for virtual meetings, conferences, and basic human interaction. Early this week my family played Pictionary using the Zoom ‘whiteboard’ function and a pictionary random word generator. If you prefer more complicated or resource driven games try the link above! Rates – continue to […]
Mortgage Forbearance, Rate Rodeo, Jobless Claims, Fed Funds
Forbearance: Fannie, Freddie, the department of HUD and other banks have announced temporary forbearance for mortgage payments. What does that mean? Well it will depend on your servicer’s terms (who you pay your mortgage to). If you are considering utilizing this, call them immediately. Investopedia provides a basic definition – the lender allows you to […]