Morning Report: Hurricane Irma does less damage than expected

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change
S&P Futures	2472.5	11.5
Eurostoxx Index	379.0	3.5
Oil (WTI)	47.7	0.2
US dollar index	84.8	0.3
10 Year Govt Bond Yield	2.10%
Current Coupon Fannie Mae TBA	103.33
Current Coupon Ginnie Mae TBA	104.21
30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage	3.73

Stocks are higher this morning after Hurricane Irma does less damage than predicted. Bonds and MBS are down. 

The week should be relatively quiet for the bond market: there isn't much in the way of market-moving data, and there won't be any Fed-Speak as we have entered the quiet period before next week's FOMC meeting. 

Hurricane Irma did less damage than expected, and is weakening as it heads northward. Damage estimates have been cut by as much as $150 billion. 

Equifax's hacking has some people livid. The hack potentially affected 143 million people compromising social security numbers, addresses, drivers' licenses, birthdays and more. Equifax's initial site to check if you were affected had issues as well, which added insult to injury. If you have been affected by this hack, Equifax is offering a free year of credit monitoring (TrustedID), however if you accept the deal, you waive your right to sue. Equifax claims the arbitration waiver would only affect damages from TrustedID, not the cybersecurity incident. A class action lawsuit was filed on Thursday. Note several executives sold $1.8 million worth of stock after the hack (they supposedly didn't know yet). Here is what you need to know. 

The NAHB took a look at where the building activity was in 2016. Unsurprisingly, the activity was concentrated in the South and West, while the Northeast lagged. Between New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania there were less than 38,000 units started in 2016. This is less than a third of what Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma did. 

Rising rates have taken a bite out of refinancing volume, which hit a 16 year low in the second quarter. Overall, volumes were up 20% from Q1 to Q2, to $467 billion, but were down 16% on a YOY basis. Purchases have been driving the increase, however they remain 30% below pre-crisis levels (and this doesn't even take into account population growth and home price inflation). To give you an idea of how much credit standards have tightened, 720+ FICOs accounted for 3/4 of all loans in Q2. Pre-crisis, they were under half. Delinquencies did tick up 2.8% in the second quarter, to 3.9% of all mortgages. Hurricane Harvey could push up DQs by 300k.

Morning Report: More dovish talk out of the Fed

Vital Statistics:

	Last	Change
S&P Futures	2468.5	-5.8
Eurostoxx Index	374.4	0.2
Oil (WTI)	48.1	0.8
US dollar index	85.4	-0.2
10 Year Govt Bond Yield	2.13%
Current Coupon Fannie Mae TBA	103.33
Current Coupon Ginnie Mae TBA	104.21
30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage	3.86

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

There isn't a much in the way of market-moving economic data this week, but we will have a bit of Fed-speak. Despite the weak-ish jobs report on Friday, the Fed Funds futures are handicapping a bigger chance of a hike in December. We are now at at 43% chance of a rate hike versus 38% last week. 

Historically, September has been a bad month for stocks. Here are some of the things that could upset the apple cart. Geopolitical risk is probably the biggest, followed by a government shutdown. The Fed is out of the picture. Note that the dividend yield on the S&P 500 is higher than Treasuries. 

Factory orders fell 3.3% in July, more or less in line with expectations. The drop was expected due to a big order from Boeing in June. 

Fed governor Lael Brainard said the Fed should slow rate hikes if inflation remains below 2%, where it has been for the past 5 years. Brainard is one of the doves on the FOMC, and the one who probably most resembles Janet Yellen's thinking.

Home prices rose 0.9% MOM and are up 6.7% YOY, according to the CoreLogic Home Price Index. Home prices rose the most in the Pacific Northwest and the mountain states. About a third of the MSAs CoreLogic covers are overvalued. 28% were considered undervalued. 

The Trump Administration is backing off threats to shut down the government over funding the border wall. Given the continuing rebuilding efforts in Houston and the potential for Hurricane Irma to hit Florida, a government shutdown over the debt ceiling isn't going to happen. Trump also said he will rescind the Obama Administration's executive order on immigration in 6 months, which gives Congress time to handle this legislatively. Funding for the wall in exchange for some protection for the Dreamers is probably the deal that will get done. 

Speaking of hurricanes, CoreLogic estimates that about 70% of the flood damage in Houston was uninsured.