Morning Report - Could fair lending laws be getting a review?

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change	Percent
S&P Futures	1986.3	-4.7	-0.24%
Eurostoxx Index	3251.1	7.1	0.22%
Oil (WTI)	93.31	0.5	0.55%
LIBOR	0.234	-0.002	-0.64%
US Dollar Index (DXY)	85.37	0.328	0.39%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield	2.53%	-0.03%
Current Coupon Ginnie Mae TBA	105.9	0.1
Current Coupon Fannie Mae TBA	105.3	0.1
BankRate 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage	4.12

Markets are lower this morning on no real news. Bonds and MBS are up.

Initial Jobless Claims came in below 300k again, which is a number associated with booming economic times. People that have jobs aren't losing them, however the long term unemployed continue to sit on the sidelines.

Durable Goods orders fell 18.2% in August after rising 22.5% in July. They normally aren't that volatile. Transportation orders tend to be lumpy and that explains the huge jumps. Ex-transportation, they rose .7%.

Almost a million homes regained positive equity in the second quarter, according to Corelogic. The share of mortgaged homes with negative equity fell to 10.7% compared to 12.7% in the first quarter and 14.9% last year. Negative equity percent peaked around 25% in 2009. This should help increase existing home sales and home supply as more and more people become able to move, which should be an incremental positive for the mortgage banking business. 

Fair lending laws might be getting a review at the Supreme Court level. For decades, bankers could be found guilty of discrimination even if they did not intend to discriminate. Lending patterns could be enough to prove discrimination. Now, this could be headed to the Supreme Court after Texas officials ruled the disparate impact standard is too loose. The Roberts Court overturned provisions of the Voting Rights Act, and advocates on both sides suspect that the majority will rule for the narrower standard. If that happens, then life could get a lot easier for mortgage bankers, who are caught between the QM and the fair lending laws.