MBS LUNCH: Locking And Floating Ahead Of NFP

By: Matthew Graham

MBS and Tsy's continue to trade at vastly improved levels versus yesterday.

the 4.5 is up 15 ticks at 101-09 and has been showing some signs of conceding to resistance at 101-10.  Could be "it" for the day, but we shall see...

The 10yr Tsy battles similar fizzle as it approaches 3.60 yield, over TEN bps better than last night's going-out levels.  Major stock averages are all down over 2%, with the S&P well below recent technicals at 1071 and change. 

I don't think I could say the following emphatically enough: YOU'RE LOOKING FOR PRICING THAT TAKES AS MUCH OF THESE GAINS AS POSSIBLE INTO ACCOUNT, AND YOU MAY HAVE TO WAIT FOR LATE IN THE DAY!

Many of the lenders who hit my email have recently been sending out updates right after 5pm eastern, some almost like clockwork.  That's a longer than usual time to have to wait for reprices on strength.  It's also entirely possible that smart people work at these lenders who realize that tomorrow morning could go either way and all today's movement constitutes is a movement from one end of a range to another, motivated by trouble in stocks. 

So if you have access to more than one lending source and have to do some serious comparison shopping today, you'll find some lenders may have more of this rally priced in than others.  Assuming that your decision isn't affected by non-monetary considerations of lender selection (are there any other kind?  pf?  anyone?), pulling the trigger tonight looks MUCH better than it did yesterday when I told you not to let the weakness in the bond market bully you into a premature lock. 

Locking tonight is akin to maximizing that "buy low sell high" principle.  I mean, c'mon!  How much higher do you want to get than the highest prices in over a month?!  The question remains, who is reflecting that most proportionately in rate sheets.  Go to it!