Morning Report - More Zillow / Trulia

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change	Percent
S&P Futures	1976.1	3.2	0.16%
Eurostoxx Index	3197.1	25.6	0.81%
Oil (WTI)	100.6	-1.0	-1.02%
LIBOR	0.234	-0.001	-0.43%
US Dollar Index (DXY)	81.15	0.127	0.16%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield	2.46%	-0.03%
Current Coupon Ginnie Mae TBA	106.3	-0.1
Current Coupon Fannie Mae TBA	105.6	0.1
BankRate 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage	4.19

Markets are higher this morning as earnings reports continue to come in. Bonds and MBS are up as well.

Consumer Confidence improved dramatically in June, according to the Conference Board. The present situation index rose from 86.3 to 88.3, but the expectations index rose from 86.4 to 92.7. In other words, the increase is being driven more by expectations of the future, which may or may not come to pass. Consumer confidence is back to October 2007 levels, where the first indications of the financial crisis were beginning to be felt. This was the beginning of the buyer's strike where the big buyers of structured product were saying no mas and banks were beginning to lug paper they couldn't move. 

The S&P Case-Shiller index dropped 31 basis points in month-over-month in May, but is still up 9.34% on an annual basis. This is the seasonally-adjusted number. The non-seasonally adjusted number rose 1.1%. This is the first month-over-month drop since real estate bottomed in early 2012. Prices are back to summer 2004 levels. San Francisco, Tampa, and Chicago led the way with price appreciation. 

Mortgage REIT giant American Capital Agency reported good second quarter numbers. They reduced their leverage by shrinking their balance sheet, which is a bearish signal on MBS. Of course everyone knows rates are going up, but you don't want to lighten your exposure until it is imminent. Interestingly, they cite the favorable supply / demand relationship with MBS, which seems to be unaffected by the Fed's tapering. This speaks to how lousy origination volumes have been this year.

Will the Zillow / Trulia merger do to real estate brokers what Expedia did to travel agents? That is the fear of many, although Zillow adamantly denies that is where it is going. "We sell ads, not houses." said Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Zillow. That may be true, but given the sheer size of broker commissions, it is probably inevitable that technology will cut in on their business model. Still, this is a merger of #1 and #2 and it could get blocked on antitrust grounds. If the NAR pushes the regulators to block the deal, it might be curtains. FWIW, the risk arbitrage community thinks this one is a long shot, with the arbitrage spread trading at 9.25% gross. This is very, very wide. On a back of the envelope basis, it looks like arbs are giving this one a 1 in 3 chance of blowing up.