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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ild who wrote (31719)	5/4/2005 1:52:13 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Respond to of 110194

More demand than supply?

To: ild who wrote (31719)	5/4/2005 3:15:45 PM
From: ild	Respond to of 110194

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 4, 2005) - The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 29. The Market Composite Index - a measure of mortgage loan application volume - was 714.1, an increase of 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 712.4 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 0.7 percent compared with last week but was down 8.0 percent compared with the same week one year earlier. The MBA seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased by 0.1 percent to 482.5 from 482.0 the previous week whereas the seasonally adjusted Refinance Index increased by 0.4 percent to 2061.2 from 2052.5 one week earlier. On a year-over-year basis the Purchase Index is down 0.1 percent overall while the Conventional Purchase Index is up 4.0 percent. Other seasonally adjusted index activity included the Conventional Index, which increased 0.2 percent to 1068.6 from 1066.6 the previous week. The Government Index increased 1.0 percent to 122.5 from 121.3 the previous week. The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 39.1 percent of total applications from 39.3 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 33.4 percent of total applications from 34.7 percent the previous week. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.74 percent from 5.75 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.18 from 1.28 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.31 percent from 5.33 percent one week earlier, with points decreasing to 1.22 from 1.26 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 4.14 percent from 4.15 percent one week earlier, with points increasing to 0.98 from 0.97 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

To: ild who wrote (31719)	5/4/2005 3:22:22 PM
From: manny_velasco	Respond to of 110194

Monetization in Reverse by Steve Northwood, Wednesday May 04 2005 After a $6.25 Billion drain and an FOMC proclamation raising rates to 3%, you’d thing the overnight rates would hit the new target, especially since the previous night's rate averaged 2.97%. Well, think again. Last night's overnight average dropped to 2.95%. The Fed has a lot of work ahead of it. Fortunately, it has plenty of rope piled on the floor- $13.5 billion to be exact. That’s the value of expiring repurchase agreements today ($4.5B) and tomorrow ($9B). They will need all of that ammunition since Treasury will be paying down $18 billion in the weekly bill settlement tomorrow. What we are witnessing is debt monetization in reverse. As the Fed withdraws excess liquidity to raise interest rates, the Treasury is creating excess liquidity by paying down debt. This is not the cause of weakness in the system but rather the result of weakness. We are approaching the tipping point where borrowing costs (the cost of money) is reducing demand for credit. We should be watching this trend closely in the days and weeks ahead. posted Wednesday May 04, 08 49 AM ET [Mail to a friend] \| [Printer friendly version] \| Discuss this article in the WSE Forum Copyright (c) 2005 The Wall Street Examiner. All rights reserved. Terms of Use Learn more! Browse the Wall Street Examiner bookstore. Comments No comments