Latest news
15th April, 26
Bonds Growing Tired of "Game On! Game Off!" News Cycle
Markets have plenty of war-related headlines to digest at any given moment these days. And while some of those headlines have been the biggest market movers of the month, traders are increasingly focusing on the examples that speak to the biggest-picture changes. Specifically, markets aren't as interested in Wayne and Garth saying "game on" and "game off," but rather, the actual moment that they pack up their sticks and nets and stop playing street hockey for the day (i.e. an announcement that the war is fully over and Hormuz is fully re-opened). In the meantime, the lesser headlines may
Bonds Growing Tired of "Game On! Game Off!" News Cycle
Markets have plenty of war-related headlines to digest at any given moment these days. And while some of those headlines have been the biggest market movers of the month, traders are increasingly focusing on the examples that speak to the biggest-picture changes. Specifically, markets aren't as interested in Wayne and Garth saying "game on" and "game off," but rather, the actual moment that they pack up their sticks and nets and stop playing street hockey for the day (i.e. an announcement that the war is fully over and Hormuz is fully re-opened). In the meantime, the lesser headlines may
14th April, 26
Bonds Ultimately Follow Oil's Lead, Heading Lower On War-Related Optimism
Bonds Ultimately Follow Oil's Lead, Heading Lower War-Related Optimism While there were no incredibly memorable sound bytes on the Iran war today, there were a few headlines that proved to be actionable for financial markets. The most actionable (by a wide margin) was a report on Fox News around 10am quoting a senior admin official as saying "a lot is happening today and tomorrow. We have all the ingredients of a deal, but it's not all there yet." This was paraphrased by Fox as "Senior Trump Admin. Official: Strong Indicators Toward Reaching Agreement With Iran." Oil and bond yields
Bonds Ultimately Follow Oil's Lead, Heading Lower On War-Related Optimism
Bonds Ultimately Follow Oil's Lead, Heading Lower War-Related Optimism While there were no incredibly memorable sound bytes on the Iran war today, there were a few headlines that proved to be actionable for financial markets. The most actionable (by a wide margin) was a report on Fox News around 10am quoting a senior admin official as saying "a lot is happening today and tomorrow. We have all the ingredients of a deal, but it's not all there yet." This was paraphrased by Fox as "Senior Trump Admin. Official: Strong Indicators Toward Reaching Agreement With Iran." Oil and bond yields
14th April, 26
Lowest Mortgage Rates in 4 Weeks
Mortgage rates had their best day of the month so far with the top tier 30yr fixed rate falling 0.08% for the average lender to the lowest levels in exactly 4 weeks. Today's improvement is a bit bigger than today's bond market movement would suggest. The discrepancy is due to timing. Bonds were improving fairly steadily since yesterday morning and the average lender didn't adjust yesterday's rates in response to the bond market improvement in the last few hours of the day. As such, that improvement was tacked on to today's. As for the drivers of the market movement, it's the same old story
Lowest Mortgage Rates in 4 Weeks
Mortgage rates had their best day of the month so far with the top tier 30yr fixed rate falling 0.08% for the average lender to the lowest levels in exactly 4 weeks. Today's improvement is a bit bigger than today's bond market movement would suggest. The discrepancy is due to timing. Bonds were improving fairly steadily since yesterday morning and the average lender didn't adjust yesterday's rates in response to the bond market improvement in the last few hours of the day. As such, that improvement was tacked on to today's. As for the drivers of the market movement, it's the same old story
14th April, 26
MERS Review, TPO, Virtual LO, Digital Ass't, HELOC, Warehouse Products; Policy Moves for LOs to Watch
Products, Services, and Software for Brokers and Lenders Meet the Axos Warehouse Lending and WCPL teams at MBA’s Secondary & Capital Markets Conference, May 17–20, 2026, at the Marriott Marquis New York. Axos Warehouse Lending helps mortgage lenders fund efficiently with a streamlined process and reliable execution, built for clarity, consistency, and confidence across market cycles. Axos WCPL (Wholesale, Correspondent, and Portfolio Lending) helps lenders broaden solutions for complex borrower profiles with experienced underwriting, broad asset acceptance, and support across occupancy
MERS Review, TPO, Virtual LO, Digital Ass't, HELOC, Warehouse Products; Policy Moves for LOs to Watch
Products, Services, and Software for Brokers and Lenders Meet the Axos Warehouse Lending and WCPL teams at MBA’s Secondary & Capital Markets Conference, May 17–20, 2026, at the Marriott Marquis New York. Axos Warehouse Lending helps mortgage lenders fund efficiently with a streamlined process and reliable execution, built for clarity, consistency, and confidence across market cycles. Axos WCPL (Wholesale, Correspondent, and Portfolio Lending) helps lenders broaden solutions for complex borrower profiles with experienced underwriting, broad asset acceptance, and support across occupancy
14th April, 26
Why Aren't Bonds Responding to a Big Beat in Inflation Data?
Bonds were fairly flat overnight and haven't moved much so far in the domestic session. More importantly, until 7am, bonds were slightly weaker even as oil prices have fallen and stocks have rallied. What gives?! If PPI had come in much higher than expected, it would be easier to explain. But despite the 0.1 vs 0.5 reading for core monthly numbers, the PPI components that track with the more important PCE inflation metrics were actually a bit higher. In addition, the ill effects of fuel prices have already wreaked havoc on March inflation data. If we assume (and we should) that
Why Aren't Bonds Responding to a Big Beat in Inflation Data?
Bonds were fairly flat overnight and haven't moved much so far in the domestic session. More importantly, until 7am, bonds were slightly weaker even as oil prices have fallen and stocks have rallied. What gives?! If PPI had come in much higher than expected, it would be easier to explain. But despite the 0.1 vs 0.5 reading for core monthly numbers, the PPI components that track with the more important PCE inflation metrics were actually a bit higher. In addition, the ill effects of fuel prices have already wreaked havoc on March inflation data. If we assume (and we should) that
13th April, 26
Weekend Selling Reverses After Another Round of De-Escalation Headlines
Weekend Selling Reverses After Another Round of De-Escalation Headlines Another day, another chance to sort through a barrage of war-related headlines to see which ones mattered to the bond market. In today's case, there were two distinct contenders. The first was apparently bogus. It referred to Iran considering abandoning its enrichment program and it actually caused a visible surge in volume and volatility. The second contender was a batch of headlines around 12:30ET that generally spoke to de-escalation potential and negotiation possibilities. All told, it was enough to reverse the
Weekend Selling Reverses After Another Round of De-Escalation Headlines
Weekend Selling Reverses After Another Round of De-Escalation Headlines Another day, another chance to sort through a barrage of war-related headlines to see which ones mattered to the bond market. In today's case, there were two distinct contenders. The first was apparently bogus. It referred to Iran considering abandoning its enrichment program and it actually caused a visible surge in volume and volatility. The second contender was a batch of headlines around 12:30ET that generally spoke to de-escalation potential and negotiation possibilities. All told, it was enough to reverse the
13th April, 26
Mortgage Rates Hold Steady Over The Weekend
Mortgage rates are based on movement in the bond market and although bonds experienced some volatility in response to Iran war news over the weekend, they ended up in similar territory to Friday morning. As such, it's no surprise to see mortgage rates in similar territory as well. The average lender began the day 0.02% higher than Friday, but bonds improved during the day and some mortgage lenders were able to make small downward adjustments mid-day. This keep the average top-tier 30yr fixed rate just below 6.40% for the third straight day. From 5.99% in late February, rates spiked as
Mortgage Rates Hold Steady Over The Weekend
Mortgage rates are based on movement in the bond market and although bonds experienced some volatility in response to Iran war news over the weekend, they ended up in similar territory to Friday morning. As such, it's no surprise to see mortgage rates in similar territory as well. The average lender began the day 0.02% higher than Friday, but bonds improved during the day and some mortgage lenders were able to make small downward adjustments mid-day. This keep the average top-tier 30yr fixed rate just below 6.40% for the third straight day. From 5.99% in late February, rates spiked as
13th April, 26
AI, LOS, Subservicing, MERS Review, Fraud Prevention Tools; Webinars; Wholesale and Correspondent News
Products, Services, and Software for Brokers and Lenders FundingShield, the leader in wire & title fraud prevention, released its Q1‑2026 Wire Fraud Analytics & Risk Report showing 43.72 percent of transactions across a $106.7B+ portfolio carried material wire and title‑related defects. CPL discrepancies impacted 43.49 percent of transactions, wire instruction issues appeared at 6.92 percent, and licensing irregularities persisted at 2.37 percent, underscoring continued vulnerabilities across closing workflows. “Seeing a 14 percent lift in remediation efficiency shows the impact
AI, LOS, Subservicing, MERS Review, Fraud Prevention Tools; Webinars; Wholesale and Correspondent News
Products, Services, and Software for Brokers and Lenders FundingShield, the leader in wire & title fraud prevention, released its Q1‑2026 Wire Fraud Analytics & Risk Report showing 43.72 percent of transactions across a $106.7B+ portfolio carried material wire and title‑related defects. CPL discrepancies impacted 43.49 percent of transactions, wire instruction issues appeared at 6.92 percent, and licensing irregularities persisted at 2.37 percent, underscoring continued vulnerabilities across closing workflows. “Seeing a 14 percent lift in remediation efficiency shows the impact
13th April, 26
Overnight Weakness (But Bouncing Back) After Peace Talks Fail
Heading into the weekend, the big news was that the U.S. and Iran would meet in Pakistan to negotiate a peace deal. But by Sunday morning, the talks had failed over an impasse on Iran's nuclear enrichment program. The market-mover, however, was the U.S. response: a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. This sent oil prices sharply higher with 10yr yields following (albeit not in as threatening a way as we've seen on many recent occasions). Bonds were already back near unchanged levels in early trading and just now moved into positive territory on headlines that Iran is "studying abandoning its
Overnight Weakness (But Bouncing Back) After Peace Talks Fail
Heading into the weekend, the big news was that the U.S. and Iran would meet in Pakistan to negotiate a peace deal. But by Sunday morning, the talks had failed over an impasse on Iran's nuclear enrichment program. The market-mover, however, was the U.S. response: a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. This sent oil prices sharply higher with 10yr yields following (albeit not in as threatening a way as we've seen on many recent occasions). Bonds were already back near unchanged levels in early trading and just now moved into positive territory on headlines that Iran is "studying abandoning its
10th April, 26
Bonds Drift Weaker Despite Lower Oil Prices
Bonds Drift Weaker Despite Lower Oil Prices Although they still technically made positive progress versus the end of last week, bonds ended the day moderately weaker. Lower oil prices offered no support, but that's a tricky correlation these days. Longer-term oil contracts continue lining up with bond yield movement more reliably. To be sure, we can at least consider the impact of this morning's CPI data based on decent trading volume at the time and a reversal of the sideways to slightly stronger momentum in the preceding few hours, but it's impossible to say that it continued weighing on
Bonds Drift Weaker Despite Lower Oil Prices
Bonds Drift Weaker Despite Lower Oil Prices Although they still technically made positive progress versus the end of last week, bonds ended the day moderately weaker. Lower oil prices offered no support, but that's a tricky correlation these days. Longer-term oil contracts continue lining up with bond yield movement more reliably. To be sure, we can at least consider the impact of this morning's CPI data based on decent trading volume at the time and a reversal of the sideways to slightly stronger momentum in the preceding few hours, but it's impossible to say that it continued weighing on