What We're Hearing

We're still trying to figure out what's going on with BB&T and its correspondent/wholesale plans but the bank, for now, has pulled down the "cone of silence." (For you non Baby Boomers, go rent a DVD of the 1960s comedy 'Get Smart' to understand the reference.) The short story is this: wholesale is out, correspondent is in, but that's all we really know. Meanwhile, it appears that BB&T is the largest warehouse lender in the nation, according to a new tally by National Mortgage News. Then again, the tally excludes Bank of America's warehouse unit. For some reason BoA won't disclose commitment figures, which I don't get. As I've noted before: what's the big secret? B of A is a publicly traded bank regulated by the FDIC. Meanwhile, if you're trying to figure out where the employment market is headed, you'd better buy a neck brace to protect yourself from whiplash. The following two headlines offer a hint at the mixed signals. From MarketWatch: "Jobs news even worse than it appears." And from the Associated Press: "Job openings rise to highest level in 16 months." Go figure…