Economy

A White House executive order issued Friday afternoon directing regulators to ease Dodd-Frank compliance burdens comes as a bipartisan housing bill advances on Capitol Hill.

The Senate passed a bipartisan housing bill in an 89 to 10 vote, but how quickly and easily the bill can pass the House remains unclear.

The conflict pushed oil price futures above $100 a barrel for a short time earlier this week, which affected bond investors and the 10-year Treasury yield.

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman outlined upcoming changes to the bank regulatory capital framework in a speech Thursday, focusing on streamlining bank capital requirements through Basel III and global systemically important bank surcharge rules.

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency would continue to pursue its view on federal preemption of state banking policy in court and in Congress.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the economy lost 92,000 jobs in February while unemployment held steady at 4.4%, a development that could spur the Federal Reserve to question whether interest rates are truly in balance.

While this only shows a 2-basis-point rise in the 30-year fixed since last week, the Lender Price product and pricing engine data is 30 basis points higher.

Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., released new legislative language Monday night that includes a ban on institutional investors' purchase of single family homes and a temporary ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency.

Markets were bracing for the chaos of a regional war; banks may be the target of sophisticated cyberattacks, experts warn.

Rocket Mortgage and Compass launched a three-year Redfin listing partnership, expanding access to 500,000+ homes, with executives saying they see no RESPA compliance issues.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., moved to consider the housing package next week, but it's not clear what version of the bill senators will be voting on as the House, Senate and White House are still negotiating priorities.

The bill, offered by Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Todd Young, R-Ind., would allow Federal Home Loan bank members to establish tax-exempt community infrastructure development bonds.

For the first time since early September 2022, the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey has the 30-year below 6%, but the 15-year gained this week.

Total consumer debt in the United States hit $18.2 trillion by the end of last year, with $12.8 trillion attributed to first mortgages, according to Equifax.

President Donald Trump talked about institutional single-family home ownership and housing affordability, as well as inflation, but left credit card rate caps, debanking and even crypto alone at the State of the Union address.

While the Freddie Mac survey recorded a weekly decline, the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield had moved back up by 6 basis points around midday on Thursday.

TransUnion projected moderate growth in 2026 for mortgages, projecting purchases and refinances to increase 4% and 4.2% year over year.

In a speech Tuesday, Federal Reserve Gov. Michael Barr said it was possible that artificial intelligence will boost productivity in an undisruptive way. But he said policymakers should also be wary of a financial crash if those gains are not realized or a rapid adoption that could lead to labor displacement.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will add loan-level buydown data to MBS this spring, giving investors clearer insight into prepayment risk tied to temporary rate incentives.

A House subcommittee hearing discussing the future of the government-sponsored enterprises, noted both are still severely undercapitalized.