As rumors of correspondent, wholesale, and retail company cutbacks or closings continue to bounce around our biz, how about this non-mortgage tidbit. During his off hours in New York, Ira S. found yet another fun and fascinating website: a map of the U.S. that one can zoom in/out of, and it will list the resident looked up most on Wikipedia (they had to be born, lived in, or somehow connected to the city). Much less fun is the fact that Capital markets staffs have turned their attention, due to recent rate drops, to renegotiations in the primary markets with LOs and AEs. In the secondary markets, of course, Wall Street firms don’t renegotiate hedge positions. In other words, one can’t call up Morgan Stanley or BAML or Multi-Bank Securities and whine, “Uh, remember that MBS we sold you three weeks ago? Well, rates have moved, and we want a better price or else.” In fact, I’ve even heard nervousness from lenders about margin calls from broker-dealers, e
I recently opened my slang dictionary to the page that defined the origin of, “Different ways to skin a cat” and left it near my cat Myrtle’s water bowl. She didn’t seem interested. Which is fine. Lenders probably interested in that either, instead more intent on programs, pricing, and the general movement of interest rates. The Federal Reserve is interested in global events, and global events have been important to our economy. The war in Ukraine is something that has upset the global commodity picture, while also threatening the global world more broadly. Fed Chair Powell gave us the roadmap last week. “We are raising rates expeditiously to what we have been seeing is a more normal level, which is something that we will reach maybe in the fourth quarter. But it is not a stopping point… Monetary policy works through expectations." There is a growing belief, however, that despite what happens with the overnight Fed Funds rate, 30-year
Stocks down, yields up, and USD is broadly higher. Nikkei and Taiwan fell by more than 2%; South Korea and Australia were off more than 1%. Europe's Stoxx 600 is off around 1.5% near midday.