Morning Report: ADP jobs report comes in line with expectations

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change	Percent
S&P Futures	2088.0	-6.9	-0.33%
Eurostoxx Index	3031.4	-32.1	-1.05%
Oil (WTI)	48.5	-0.6	-1.22%
LIBOR	0.673	-0.001	-0.15%
US Dollar Index (DXY)	95.38	-0.510	-0.53%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield	1.81%	-0.03%
Current Coupon Ginnie Mae TBA	105.6
Current Coupon Fannie Mae TBA	104.7
BankRate 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage	3.65

Markets are lower this morning as ECB President Mario Draghi speaks. Bonds and MBS are flat.

The ECB will now start buying corporate bonds in an attempt to stimulate their economies. Truly an amazing time we live in. 

We get some labor market data this morning, before the big jobs report tomorrow. 

The ADP Employment Change report came bang in line with expectations at 173k jobs created. Tomorrow's non-farm payroll expectation is for an increase of 160k jobs created in May. Small business led the way, adding 76k employees. Professional and business services increased the most. Manufacturing jobs fell.

Note that tomorrow's payrolls number could be affected by the Verizon strike. Regardless. the number to focus on tomorrow is the change in average hourly earnings. 

Job cuts fell to a 5 month low, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. Announced job cuts came in at just over 30k, a drop of about 50% from April. The two biggest industries in job cuts - energy and finance - appear to be slowing down the pace of headcount reduction. 

Initial Jobless Claims came in at 267k last week, 

Homebuilder Hovnanian reported second quarter earnings this morning. Deliveries were up 31% and revenues were up 40%. Earnings were still below expectations. The stock is down this morning

US auto sales fell in May, which is usually one of the stronger months for auto sales. Auto sales had been increasing for 6 years, pushed by a stronger economy and ridiculously cheap financing. Yield pigs may find that doing 8 year auto loans at 3.5% is a dumb trade. 

Despite being disappointed by the current crop of presidential candidates, consumers still plan to buy cars and houses. Despite all the rhetoric, the economy is not doing all that badly, and there is tremendous pent-up demand for housing, especially from younger buyers. The issue for them is affordability, and tight inventory combined with a lack of building is making it hard. 

Here is a new one in the world of apartment leasing: Like our facebook page, or else.

The House included language in the 2017 budget to bring Congressional oversight to the CFPB and subject it to the appropriations process. Currently, it is funded by the Fed, who really has no choice but to give them what they want. Second, the provision would replace the single director with a five-member board appointed by the President. While this is going nowhere (we haven't had a budget since early in Obama's Presidency), it will be fodder for the fall elections. For the moment, it appears the CFPB is directing its attention to payday lenders. 

Morning Report: Job openings at another record

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change	Percent
S&P Futures	1984.9	19.2	0.98%
Eurostoxx Index	3315.0	81.1	2.51%
Oil (WTI)	45.49	-0.4	-0.98%
LIBOR	0.333	0.001	0.30%
US Dollar Index (DXY)	96.34	0.358	0.37%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield	2.23%	0.05%
Current Coupon Ginnie Mae TBA	104	-0.2
Current Coupon Fannie Mae TBA	103.7	-0.1
BankRate 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage	3.84

Stocks are higher this morning on overseas strength in equity markets led by Japan. Bonds and MBS are down. 

Mortgage Applications fell 6.2% last week, with purchases falling 0.9% and refis falling 9.9%. 

Job openings hit a record in July, with the JOLTS job openings hitting 5.7 million. Compare that number with the number of unemployed at 8 million. The quits rate (which is a measure of economic strength) has been unchanged for the past year however at between 2.7 million and 2.8 million. It seems surprising to see a labor force participation rate at 38 year lows, job openings at highs, an unemployment rate at boom time levels, and almost  no real wage growth. It speaks to a mismatch between what business wants and who is available. 

Chart: JOLTS job openings:

Citi is forecasting a better than 50% chance of a global recession in the next couple of years. This will be led by emerging markets and China. While that doesn't necessarily mean the US will head into a recession, it does mean that there will be little to no upward pressure on interest rates. The biggest risk to the US is a sharp increase in the US dollar, which will hurt exporters. The policy response to a recession will be limited - monetary policy is already at pretty much full stimulus. Much more worrisome however, is the fact that protectionist policies are gaining in popularity. 

Homebuilder Hovnanian reported earnings this morning. Deliveries fell 3.8% compared with last year. Gross margins were down as well. Contracts did expand however, to almost 20%. It seems like the builders in general had a bit of a lull in deliveries over the summer, but almost all reported bit increases in contracts and backlog. We are entering the slow season for the builders, which lasts about as long as football season. While I sometimes feel like Linus in the pumpkin patch, 2016 could be a big year for the builders. Would be nice to get housing starts back around historical levels of 1.5 million or so. 

Larry Summers is out with another editorial which lays out the case for keeping rates at zero. His argument is that credit spreads have widened (which means the interest rate companies have to pay to borrow) has increased over the past month and that in of itself constitutes a tightening. David Stockman (Reagan's budget director) was on Bloomberg Radio this morning excoriating the "clowns at the Fed" for not having raised rates already. His point is that the unemployment rate is in the middle of the range of what the Fed considers full employment. In fact, the 5.1% unemployment rate is in the bottom quintile of unemployment rates over the past 40 years. 

Morning Report - tough times for East Coast builder Hovnanaian.

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change	Percent
S&P Futures	2086.4	6.3	0.30%
Eurostoxx Index	3479.5	22.7	0.66%
Oil (WTI)	61.68	1.5	2.56%
LIBOR	0.282	0.001	0.36%
US Dollar Index (DXY)	94.67	-0.498	-0.52%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield	2.47%	0.03%
Current Coupon Ginnie Mae TBA	100.2	-0.2
Current Coupon Fannie Mae TBA	98.63	-0.1
BankRate 30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage	4.11

Stocks are flattish after Greece submitted a plan to creditors which was rejected. Bonds and MBS are down

Mortgage Applications rose 8.4% last week in spite of a massive sell-off in bonds, which took the 30 year fixed rate mortgage from 4.02% to 4.17%. Purchases were up 9.7% while refis increased 7%. Note that this bump is following the shortened Memorial Day week, so that accounts for some of the increase. The purchase index is approaching 2 year highs, although we are a long way from normalcy.

How much have the banks been fined / spent on legal for the financial crisis? About $300 billion. And the governments aren't done yet. They still are scratching their collective heads wondering why credit is so tight, though.

For all the talk about how tough the Millennials have it, Generation X has it even worse. The financial crisis hit them during their peak earnings years. Want to know why consumer spending is down so much? The elderly boomers already bought their last TVs, while Gen-Xers are struggling with the 50% hit to their net worth they took in the bust. Millennials are just trying to find a job. I do think that the next big political schism will fall along generational lines, with the baby boomers trying to extract more resources from their broke offspring who want to means test the benefits their parents get.

Hovnanian, the New Jersey based homebuilder, fell 13% yesterday after they disappointed the Street with earnings. Margins fell as they company had to offer more incentives to move their inventory. Gross margins fell from 20% to 16%. The company characterized the housing market as "a  bit tentative." Hovnanian operates in New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, California, Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. Not surprising since the Northeast / Mid Atlantic / Deep South housing markets have been lagging the red-hot West Coast markets.

More gloomy prognostications from JP Morgan: The US is entering a period of slower growth due to low productivity (which fell 3.1% last quarter). They anticipate job creation to average around 75,000 a month, unless some new productivity-enhancing technological development comes around. The last time we went through that was the 1970s, productivity stagnated and the oil shocks along with automatic wage increases in union contracts ignited a wage-price spiral. FWIW, I am not sure I buy that argument - cheap energy is not going away, and solar keeps getting cheaper and better.