Confounded Interest – Anthony B. Sanders
Financial Markets And Real Estate
Rising energy prices, rising home prices, rising mortgage rates, declining hope.
But as The Federal Reserve begins to withdraw it Covid stimulus, existing home sales declined -3.39% in May from April.
But like Covid itself, The Fed’s outrageous monetary stimulus is still in place, helping caused median home prices to rise 14.8% YoY. And inventory for sale is rising, but still remains low.
Jointly, Treasury Secretary Yellen and Fed Chair Powell are “Mr Freeze.”
US Treasury Secretary and former Federal Reserve Chain, Janet Yellen, admitted on ABC’s This Week that US inflation is “unacceptably high”and prices are likely to stick with consumers through 2022, and that the US economy is likely to slow down.
“We’ve had high inflation so far this year, and that locks in higher inflation for the rest of the year,” she said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I expect the economy to slow,” she said, adding: “But I don’t think a recession at all inevitable.”
US inflation accelerated to 8.6% in May, a fresh 40-year high that signals price pressures are becoming entrenched in the economy. Those figures dashed any hope that inflation was starting to ebb, prompting the Federal Reserve to unleash its biggest interest-rate increase since 1994.
Hey, I thought strangling the US mortgage market and housing markets was supposed to cool the inflation rate, Janet.
On the good news/bad news front, cryptocurrency Bitcoin fell to $17,600 earlier today before rebounding to above $20,000 as the expectation of further Fed rate increases diminished (Yellen admitted the economy is slowing).
Yellen ignored rising mortgage rates which is putting a chokehold on the US housing market.
Hey Janet! So you are admitting that Biden’s energy policies AND massive Congressional spending bills ARE helping to drive prices through the roof and that Fed rate increases won’t tame the savage inflation beast?
Like in the movie The Poseidon Adventure, we can all sing “The Morning After.”
On the heels of The Fed’s 75 basis point surge in the target rate, the US Treasury yield jumped +11.5 BPS as of 8:30 AM EST. The S&P 500 E-mini futures contract is down -1.8%.
As investors brace for a recession, mortgage rates dropped to 6.03%.
Gasoline prices remain near $5 per gallon, diesel prices are near $6 per gallon and The Fed’s massive balance sheet is still in force.
On the housing front, US housing starts plunged -14.4% MoM in May, the biggest decline under Biden.
While housing starts were down -14.4% MoM in May, single-family detached home were down only -9.16%. It was 5+ unit (multifamily) starts that were down -26.83% MoM.
Good morning peeps! Reality is dawning after the market surge yesterday after investors celebrated that The Fed could have raised rates even more.
Off to bad start this week. The 10-year Treasury yield rose 11 basis points at 8am EST while the S&P 500 E-mini futures are down -2.5%.
And then we have this scary chart of mortgage rates. Bankrate’s 30-year mortgage rate is now up to 5.78%.
And then we have Bitcoin. Bitcoin is struggling as The Fed tightens the noose on the US economy with expected Fed rate hikes and a rising US Dollar.
I’ve got a whole lotta anxiety over this week.
The dynamic duo.
The Federal Reserve is making up for Bernanke and Yellen’s “too slow to remove” Fed stimulus policies (QE1 – QE3) and Powell’s Covid-related QE4. Now The Fed is trying to remove the stimulus in a (misguided) attempt to cool inflation. Remember, the dramatic rise in prices was caused by more than Fed stimulypto, it was also caused by Biden’s executive orders driving up oil, gasoline and natural gas prices and the massive Federal spending bills signed by Biden.
The result of The Fed’s jawboning about undoing Fed stimulypto is take away the punch bowl. But the results are troubling. Both the total return indices for US Treasuries and Agency Mortgage-backed Securities (MBS) have declined dramatically since inflation has been rising (highest in 40 years) and The Fed is expected to crank their target rate by February 2023 to 3.448% (The Fed Funds Target Rate currently stands at 1%). That is almost a 250 basis point rise in the target rate in 8 months.
While the 10-year rate is rising rapidly, the 2-year Treasury yield is REALLY rising fast.
And the yield curve (10Y-2Y) is down to +8.819 basis points as The Fed signals tightening.
And with rising 10 and 2Y Treasury yields, we are seeing the fastest rise in mortgage rates since 1981.
The CPI news on Friday was so awful that it changed the bond market’s view of Fed trajectory, and the weakest sector broke. In bond jargon, MBS went “no-bid.” No buyers for MBS. Then a few posted prices beyond borrower demand, not wanting to buy except at penalty prices. (Courtesy of Cherry Creek Mortgage)
Despite what Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said, Friday’s inflation report demonstrated that inflation is no longer transitory. And with that realization, there was a dearth of bidders for Agency Mortgage-backed Securities (Agency MBS) on Friday.
As a result, agency MBS 2.5% dropped to under $90 as markets expect The Fed to keep raising rates to combat inflation.
Duration of the FNCL 2.5% agency MBS has been extending with growing inflation. Duration was under 1 on August 2, 2021 but is now 7 times greater at almost 7.
Note to Yellen: inflation seems be permanent, not transitory. Or at least inflation will remain high for the foreseeable future, crushing the life out of Agency MBS.
Here is my version of their chart since 2000 where you can seen the seismic shift in the balance sheet (toxic green slime line), particularly with The Fed’s response to Covid. The Fed is signaling a tightening in monetary policy to help reduce inflation (blue line).
But notice that M2 Money Velocity (GDP/M2) is now near the all-time low along with consumer purchasing power.
How BIG is The Fed’s balance sheet? Try more that a third of size of US GDP.
And as The Fed signals its inflation-fighting intentions, mortgage rates have shot up to 5.51%, the highest mortgage rate since June 2009.
Speaking of seismic shifts, the Atlanta Fed’s Q2 GDP tracker just fell to +0.9%.
The Fed’s noose is tightening on the economy.
Instead of President Ronald Reagan saying ““Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” we need someone to tell President Biden and Federal Reserve Jerome Powell to “Stop driving up prices and making housing unaffordable.” Unfortunately, The Fed thinks that raising interest rates will temper price increases — it won’t. But it could tamper home price growth.
So what we are left with is soaring home prices AND soaring mortgage rates, leaving this scary chart. The housing cost index has risen 114.5% under Biden.
Its only going to get worse from here.
Today’s jobs report for May showed that the U-3 unemployment rate remained the same as April, 3.60%. However, that is lower than the NATURAL rate of unemployment of 4.445% indicating that the labor market is overheated. Historically, The Fed has tightened monetary policy by raising rates when this has happened. So, look for The Fed to keep raising rates.
As I have mentioned before, REAL hourly wage growth is negative since March 2021, just after Biden signed his executive orders canceling drilling on Federal lands and cancelling the Keystone Pipeline. Later, he canceled off-shore drilling permits and Alaska drilling. Now we have REAL average hourly wages declining at -2.8% YoY as The Fed has been reducing M2 Money supply YoY.
Listings of homes is up 11% YoY, the highest in several years.
Let’s see how the housing market does with soaring mortgage rates.
How do you spell stagflation? M-O-N-E-Y … tightening.
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors playing “Hurting housing two times.”
President Biden met with Federal Reserve Chairman Powell to discuss how to control the inflation that is crushing the middle class and low-wage workers.
Here is a good example of why Biden is worried. There is a mid-term election on the horizon and people are angry and scared. Housing, generally the largest asset owned (or rented) by a household is simply unaffordable thanks, in part, to the over-stimulation of the economy by 1) The Federal Reserve in terms of money printing and 2) the Federal government in terms of fiscal stimulus in response to the Covid outbreak in March 2020.
In nominal terms, the gap between US home prices (Case-Shiller National Home Price Index YoY – US Average Hourly Earnings YoY) is near the all-time high.
Yes, home price growth exploded upwards when The Fed rapidly expanded their balance sheet in response to the Covid outbreak … and only now are considering shrinking the balance sheet.
In terms of house prices, CoreLogic has a nice chart depicted the odds of home prices dropping over the coming year. I circled Columbus Ohio because that is where I am moving (knock on wood).
And then we have the 30-year mortgage rate rising with The Fed’s expected tightening of monetary policy. That will certainly make housing even less affordable, unless house price growth cools dramatically.
You might as well face it, we’re addicted to gov.
Doctor, doctor (Yellen), we’ve got a bad case of UNAFFORDABLE HOUSING.
Another 10 basis point jumps in Treasury yields, this time at the 2-year Treasury Note.
The 10Y-2Y Treasury slope just flattened to +26 BPS.
Another step in rising mortgage rates!
Confounded Interest - Anthony B. Sanders 
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