US Mortgage Rates Plunge for a Second Week, Hit Two-Month Low, Purchase And Refi Applications Rise (But Purchase Apps Down 86% YoY, Refi Apps Down 41% YoY)

The global economic slowdown has one nice unintended consequence: as the 10-year Treasury yield softens, mortgage rates decline.

US mortgage rates retreated sharply for a second week, hitting a two-month low and providing a bit of traction for the beleaguered housing market.

The contract rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage decreased 23 basis points to 6.67% in the week ended Nov. 18, according to Mortgage Bankers Association data released Wednesday.

Rates have plunged nearly a half percentage point in the past two weeks, the most since 2008, as recession concerns mount, inflation shows signs of cooling and a number of Federal Reserve officials say it may soon be appropriate to slow the pace of monetary tightening.

The slide in borrowing costs helped stir demand as the group’s index of applications to buy a home climbed 2.8%. That marked the third-straight increase since the gauge stumbled to the weakest level since 2015.

The pickup in demand allowed the overall measure of mortgage applications, which includes refinancing, to rise for a second week, but it still remains depressed. The index of refinancing activity edged up from a 22-year low.

The Refinance Index increased 2 percent from the previous week and was 86 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 9 percent compared with the previous week and was 41 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

But you need an electron microscope to see the increase in both purchase and refi apps.

One indicator of a slowing global economy is the decline of FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) with declining liquidity.

The Deep! The US Treasury 10Y-2Y Yield Curve Keeps Going Deep Into Inversion As M2 Money YoY Collapses

The US economy is in “The Deep.” Deep into yield curve inversion, that is.

The US Treasury 10Y-2Y yield curve swam deeper into inversion at -75 basis points. The deepest inversion since just before The Great Recession and housing market crash.

Trabucco Road? US Consumer Credit Outstanding SOARS As Inflation Soars And Personal Savings Collapses (Cryptos Rally As Jim Cramer And ARK’s Cathie Wood Buy The Dip!)

Wasting away again in Biden’s inflationville.

During the Covid crisis of 2020 (red box). consumer credit declined and households were saving. But following the end of US Covid economic shutdowns, we saw inflation soaring to 40-year highs as Biden declared war on fossil fuels and a Pelsoi-led Congress went on an epic spending spree. But with soaring inflation, came a decline in personal savings and soaring consumer credit outstanding in an attempt to cope with Bidenflation.

Meanwhile, in the crypto universe, CNBC’s Jim Cramer and ARK’s Cathie Wood are going big for cryptos. With Wood buying Bitcoin and Cramer touting Coinbase.

Hmmm.

But at least Litecoin and the others are up today. Likely because Cramer and Wood are touting cryptos with “buy the dip!” strategy.

And on the Sam Bankman-Fried fiasco front, I am watching the deflection of wrongdoing from SBF to his girlfriend and now the co-CEO of Alameda Research, Sam Trabucco.

Bloomberg: He has a degree from MIT and cut his teeth as a trader at Susquehanna International Group. Yet the former co-head of Alameda Research made it clear that poker and black-jack tables were where he honed the gambler’s instincts he applied to cryptocurrency trading.

“I may or may not be banned from 3 casinos for this,” Sam Trabucco once tweeted about counting cards at black jack tables.

Trabucco Road?

98 Shades Of Gray! US Treasury 10Y-2Y Yield Curve Inverts To -73.5 BPS, Worst Since 1981 (98 Straight Days Of Inversion)

The Biden Administration is setting all sorts of records. One is the worst inflation rate in 40 years. Another is highest gasoline prices in history (until the latest global slowdown). The list goes on, but here is another one: the US Treasury 10Y-2Y yield curve is now at -72.5 basis points, the more inverted curve since 1981.

This is the US Treasury version of 50 Shades Of Grey.

Drivers To See Highest Thanksgiving Gasoline Prices Ever While Diesel-To-Gasoline Spread Soars (Food Prices UP 49% Under Biden, Diesel Prices UP 102%)

As Americans prepare to hit the road for Thanksgiving, average gas prices will be at their highest seasonal level ever, according to GasBuddy.

GasBuddy says the national average is projected to stand at $3.68 on Thanksgiving Day. This is nearly 30¢ higher than last year, and over 20¢ higher than the previous record of $3.44 set in 2012.

And diesel prices, the life blood of the shipping industry, relative to gasoline prices, are soaring. Highest since 2004.

As we approach Thanksgiving Day, it is important to be thankful … that things aren’t even worse under Billions Biden. US CRB foodstuffs are up 49% under Biden while diesel fuel is up 102%.

Now, gasoline prices fell recently as WTI crude prices slipped on slowing demand. And as stimulus wears out.

And its now only food.

Have a holly jolly Thanksgiving!!

My Thanksgiving dinner, because of the cost, will be a Jersey Mike’s turkey and provolone sub (mini). Or this canned dinner.

NOW A Warning?? FTX Owes Its 50 Biggest Unsecured Creditors More Than $3 Billion (Biden Leads Call For Global Bitcoin And Crypto Rules After Shock FTX Collapse)

As Meryl Steep said in Death Becomes Her, “NOW a warning??”

Joe Biden Leads ‘Critical’ Call For Game-Changing, Global Bitcoin And Crypto Rules After Shock FTX Collapse. After Sam Bankman-Fried helped Democrats avoid a red wave. NOW a warning??

The chaos created by Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX Crypto Exchange) and Alameda Research (SBF’s hedge fund) will go down in history as one of the biggest scams. And should earn a top spot on Phil Hall’s 100 Years Of Wall Street Crooks.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s bankrupt crypto empire owes its 50 biggest unsecured creditors a total of $3.1 billion, new court papers show, with a pair of customers owed more than $200 million each.

FTX-linked entities owe their single biggest unsecured creditor more than $226 million, according to a redacted list of top 50 creditors filed late Saturday. All of them were listed as customers and ten have claims of more than $100 million each, the filings show.

The creditors, whose names and locations weren’t disclosed, are among the vast array of people and institutions caught up in FTX’s insolvency. The 50 largest claims are all from customers owed $21 million or more.

In the US, bankrupt companies are required to disclose information about their debts as part of insolvency proceedings. Creditors will get to weigh in on the best way for FTX to repay its debts as the bankruptcy unfolds.

FTX said it has assets and liabilities of at least $10 billion each in preliminary court papers. The case may involve more than one million creditors, according to lawyers for FTX.

The case is FTX Trading Ltd., 22-11068, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

And then this headline from the Wall Street Journal: FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Cashed Out $300 Million During Funding Spree.

On top of that, SBF is attempting to raise MORE money. The question is … who would be dumb enough to listen to SBF?

Crytpo continue to fall as investor confidence in crytpo has waned since SBF’s fraud was exposed. (In SBF’s defense, I am sure that current House Financial Services committee Chair Maxine Waters will declare he is a victim of changing market conditions, not historically massive fraud and political influence pedaling).

Didn’t SBF or his Alameda Research girlfriend Caroline Ellison look at Bitcoin as inflation roared under Biden and Fed started to remove its epic monetary stimulus? Or did any of the investors or their representatives bother to look at the books of FTX or Alameda Research??

I have the sneaking suspicion that Caroline Ellison or some other little fish will take the fall for SBF’s fraud. SBF has bought-off too many politicians.

NOW a warning from Biden??

Sam Bankman-Fried’s magical election elixir.

Alarm! Yesterday’s PUT/CALL Ratio Was Highest In History (1.46, Higher Than 2001 And 2008!) REAL M2 Money YoY Plunges To Lowest Since 1980 And Jimmy Carter

Alarm!

Yesterday’s PUT/CALL ratio was the highest in history at 1.46. That is higher than 2001 and 2008.

REAL M2 Money YoY has crashed to its lowest level since 1980 and Jimmy Carter.

And the train keeps on rollin’.

Instead of Little Games, The Federal Reserve is making this BIG GAMES.

Existing Home Sales Update: REAL Median Home Price Growth At -1.17% YoY, REAL Wage Growth At -3.0% YoY, REAL 30yr Mortgage Rate At -0.5254% (How Bad Is US Inflation??)

The US housing market is slowing, to be sure. Yesterday’s existing home sales (EHS) report revealed that US EHS were down -28.43% YoY and the median price of EHS slowed to 6.6% YoY.

But that is just the surface of the EHS report for October. Once I removed inflation (CPI YoY) from the numbers, we are left with REAL median price of EHS growth of -1.17% and REAL average hourly earnings YoY of -3.0% YoY. The REAL 30-year mortgage rate is -5.25%. That reveals how horrible inflation is in the US.

It is important to note that EHS numbers are lower in October than they were before Covid stimulypto (my name for the massive spending spree by Congress and massive injection of monetary stimulus by The Fed. Even the REAL 30-year mortgage rate is negative at -0.5254%.

On a side note, how come fraudulent former Stanford student Elizabeth Holmes gets 11 years in prison for her Theranos scam, but Sam Bankman-Fried only gets a House hearing with Maxine “Dirty” Waters as Chair by losing a far greater amount? Could the fact that SBF and his co-founders at FTX contributed $300,351 to nine members of the House Financial Services Committee, according to Federal Election Commission records?

I guess Elizabeth Holmes did not make the requisite pay-offs.

US Existing Home Sales In October Plunge -28.43% YoY As Fed Tightens Monetary Noose (EHS Median Price Growth YoY Slows To 6.6% As Inventory Declines)

As I mentioned on Varney and Company on Fox Business, housing is going to suffer when The Fed starts to tighten their monetary policy. And here we are, folks!

US existing home sales fell a staggering -28.43% YoY in October as M2 Money growth grinds to almost a halt.

October’s existing home sales YoY of -28.43% is the WORST since The Great Recession and collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The median price of existing home sales slowed to 6.6% YoY. Inventory of EHS remains below pre-Covid levels.

Unrelated to housing, Prince Imhotep (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari) said Friday that the whole idea of cryptocurrency is “nonsense” after the implosion of FTX revealed the industry’s shortcomings.

“This isn’t case of 1 fraudulent company in a serious industry,” Kashkari said on Twitter, commenting on an article about how investors fell for FTX. “Entire notion of crypto is nonsense. Not useful 4 payments. No inflation hedge. No scarcity. No taxing authority. Just a tool of speculation & greater fools.”

Or it could be that investors don’t trust The Fed or Federal government to act in their best interest.

Here is a crypto investor (in red fez) being lectured by Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari.

Limbo Rock! How Low Can The Treasury Yield Curve Go? (Now At -70 Basis Points, Most Inverted Since 1981)

How low will the US Treasury 10y-2y yield curve go?

As of today, the US Treasury 10yr-2yr yield curve is the most inverted since 1981 at -70 basis points.

Meanwhile, equity put/call ratio from CBOE spiked yesterday to highest since 1997.

I am disappointed that The New York Times cancelled their $2,400 event to listen to Sam The Sham Bankman-Fried, Vlad “Show my your money!” Zelensky, Larry “The Big Fink” Fink and Janet “We never saw it coming” Yellen. I would have loved to do the New York Times job for them and ask hard questions to Sam The Sham and Zelensky about money laundering.