MBS RECAP: Bond Markets Happy With Lack of Surprises From Yellen

By: Matthew Graham

Bond began the first few minutes of the day in slightly weaker shape, but ended the day in positive territory after Yellen's congressional testimony and a strong 10yr Note auction.

Neither the weakness at the open, nor the strength at the close were much to write home about, but MBS did have a better afternoon than Treasuries.  Fannie 4.0s are up 7/32nds heading into the final hour and 3.5 coupons are up 10 ticks.  Keep in mind though, that tomorrow afternoon markets the 'roll' from May coupons to June, and the representative MBS Price will drop appreciably (usually somewhere between a quarter and three eighths of a point).

Even then, mortgage markets are clearly outperforming to some extent as rates are the lowest they've been since November.  In terms of assessing where markets might go, however, Treasuries are a more relevant technical tool, and although they're certainly much closer than they've been at any other time in 2014, they still haven't quite confirmed a true break below "the range."


MBS Pricing Snapshot
Pricing shown below is delayed, please note the timestamp at the bottom. Real time pricing is available via MBS Live.
MBS
FNMA 3.0
98-07 : +0-07
FNMA 3.5
102-12 : +0-09
FNMA 4.0
105-14 : +0-06
Treasuries
2 YR
0.4067 : -0.0203
10 YR
2.5932 : -0.0018
30 YR
3.4050 : +0.0240
Pricing as of 5/7/14 4:07PMEST

Today's Reprice Alerts and Updates
A recap of Alerts and Updates provided to MBS Live subscribers.
1:22PM  :  Fleeting Improvement After Strong 10yr Auction; More Reprice Potential
12:05PM  :  Positive Reprice Potential Continues; Holding Gains After Yellen
10:17AM  :  As Expected, No Surprises from Yellen, but Bonds Improve; Q&A Still to Come
9:12AM  :  Bond Markets Weaker on Putin Comments; What's Econ Data?

MBS Live Chat Highlights
A recap of featured comments from the Live Discussion on the MBS Live Dashboard.
aaron meyer  :  "I have a borrower who bought an investment propety last Nov and another in Jan of 2014. Can that rental income be counted if they had no landlord experience prior to the 1st NOO purchase in Nov 2013? "
Matt Hodges  :  "freddie no, i think fannie yes, Aaron"
Clayton Sandy  :  "It's a lender overlay to require landlord experience"
aaron meyer  :  "The other 2 properties I qualified them with full PITI on rentals so rents were not an issue"
Brent Borcherding  :  "75% of that rent applied to PITI on the properties is ABSOLUTELY income that can be used."
Frank Hanna  :  "UW wants terms and conditions for a 401k withdrawal. Borrower is not taking the withdrawal though, just need to use as part of reserves. Oddly I have never done this before. What do I obtain? "
James Patton  :  "FPH, I had that too - UW accepted a benefits guide that stated that withdrawals could occur in event of hardship"
Clayton Sandy  :  "Frank, just have your client contact their HR department. They'll have a full booklet that will explain acceptable withdrawals. "