Mortgage Backed Securities are PLUS 65bps this morning.

The guy sitting on the bench never strikes out. The only problem is he is never in the game to begin with. That means if you are in the game long enough you will strike out every once in awhile. It is not because you did not do the research or did not see the market trends. With the best intentions you are sometimes on the wrong side. I was on the wrong side yesterday.

I wrote yesterday to lock the rate in front...

Mortgage Backed Securities are Minus 28bps today.

Milwaukee mortgage rates started to move up last week. We questioned why they would be pulling back other then just getting ahead of themselves. Today they restarted their ascent. This after weekly jobless claims came in lower by 14,000. ADP also said there were 157,000 new jobs created ahead of the 60,000 anticipated. That gives markets reason to believe tomorrow's job reports will be favorable. Equity markets are cheering and moving...

Mortgage Backed Securities are Minus 6 this morning.

Lenders came out very aggressive in their pricing today. The short week and low volumes may have prevented them from producing the best rates available. Today they are very aggressive in the face of head winds. We will have to see if they keep their sentiment the rest of the trading day. We are already off the best levels of the day and sliding.

The Institute for Supply Management released their current reading. Most...

One in four homeowners is underwater on their mortgage. That is putting pressure on the real estate market. Homeowners that would typically look to upgrade during the recent historic rates are helpless and unable to sell their current homes. We talked in a previous blog about sellers needing to fix their home to make sure it met all different program guidelines. There is a new fear and that is the neighbor who fire sells their property.

A new disturbing trend is homeowners getting...

Mortgage Backed Securities are Minus 40bps this morning and puts the 3 day total above 100bps.

The Chicago PMI came in at 61.1 rising from the 56.6 reading last month and well above the 51 that analysts expected. Last month the same reading slipped and gave investors pause that the stimulus was not working. This reading tells investors that we were in a soft patch and the long term health of the economy may be just fine.

"The Greek parliament bore a gift to the...