Mortgage Stocks Soar After Fed Announcement

It was a positive surprise for the stock market as a whole, and mortgage-related stocks in particular, when Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday afternoon that the Federal Open Market Committee decided to keep the current bond buying program in place.

Just three of the 17 Mortgage Industry Equity Composite member stocks closed lower than they did on Tuesday. Dime Community closed unchanged.

The biggest beneficiary in the MIEC from the announcement was KB Home, up 8.22%. CoreLogic was up 2.92% and Redwood Trust up 2.60%.

Bank of Hawaii led the decliners, down 1.11%. Ellie Mae lost 0.10% and OceanFirst Financial lost 0.06%.