Morning Report: Incomes and spending rise

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change
S&P Futures	2281.5	-7.5
Eurostoxx Index	364.2	-2.2
Oil (WTI)	53.1	0.0
US dollar index	91.4	0.0
10 Year Govt Bond Yield	2.48%
Current Coupon Fannie Mae TBA	102.1
Current Coupon Ginnie Mae TBA	103.2
30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage	4.16

Dow 20,000 hats are off this morning as corporate earnings continue to come in. Bonds and MBS are up.

Donald Trump temporarily restricted immigration from 7 countries over the weekend until new vetting procedures are put in place. This story dominated the news cycle. 

Personal Incomes rose in December by 0.3% while spending rose 0.5%. The core PCE index (the Fed's preferred measure of inflation) is up 1.7% YOY. 

Pending Home Sales increased in December, according to NAR. The challenge for 2017 will be increasing inventory enough to offset higher borrowing costs. NAR is forecasting housing starts to increase 8% this year to 1.26 million. Normalcy is closer to 1.5 million, so we have a ways to go there. 

We have a big week for data, with the FOMC meeting and the jobs report on Friday. We also get productivity and employment costs, which is another huge number. We are also in the middle of earnings season with several heavyweights reporting this week. 

Steve Mnuchin doesn't appear to be interested in removing the Volcker Rule, which prohibits banks with FDIC backing to conduct proprietary trading. He does believe that it has restricted market liquidity in its implementation however and he is interested in tweaking it. Overall, it looks like Dodd-Frank will be fixed but not repealed. 

A war is brewing over the state of the CFPB. Donald Trump has yet to weigh in on the agency or the fate of Richard Cordray. Also, it is looking like the CFPB will be remade into a bipartisan board as well. 

80% of all mortgage borrowers are completely honest on their loan applications, according to a study by UBS. The inaccuracies generally fall into four buckets: overstated income, underreported debt, underreported expenses, and overstated assets. 

The NAR's quarterly survey of mortgage lenders is out, and problems with appraisers (or lack thereof) dominate the headaches. Over half of all respondents reported issues in this area, with 11% characterizing them as significant. One problem is the lack of new entrants, however 28% of lenders won't accept an appraisal done by a trainee, and 44% require direct supervision of all aspects performed by a trainee. Non-QM lending fell slightly during the quarter, however investor demand for the product is rising. Rising rates are expected to have some effect on purchase demand, however there is such tight supply that it shouldn't affect volumes overall. 

Home prices are now within 0.3% of their peaks on a national level according to Black Knight Financial Services.