Fixed income

The acquisition of the mortgage servicer has costs, but it'll give the company offsetting efficiencies of scale, executives said in an earnings call Tuesday.

The company took another net loss but some of its numbers improved as it slashed expenses and prospects improved for distressed loan services.

News of President Chris Marshall's planned departure at year-end 2024 came amid reports of net servicing gains and the start of a capital raise for an MSR fund.

The recent jump is the biggest increase since the run up in the early 1980s, when Paul Volcker's efforts to slay inflation pushed the 10-year yield to nearly 16%.

The 10-year Treasury yield crossed 5% for the first time in 16 years, propelled by expectations the Federal Reserve will maintain elevated interest rates and that the government will further boost bond sales to cover widening deficits.

While the company's long-term issuer default rating has slipped a little, affiliates of Blackstone that have a higher one back the reverse mortgage player.

US 30-year yields dropped seven basis points to 4.79%, unwinding part of Thursday's surge that was driven by a somewhat disappointing inflation reading and a weak bond auction.

The current Treasury yield curve is leading homeowners to pay mortgage rates at least 120 basis points more than they should, equal to an extra $245 a month on a $300,000 loan, their letter said.

Top Fed officials are coalescing around the idea that tighter financial conditions after a recent surge in U.S. Treasury yields may substitute for additional increases in their benchmark interest rate.

But at the same time, the publicly traded company is selling off another type of housing finance asset to some large depository institutions.

"There is nothing that is saying we need to do anything imminent anytime soon," the Federal Reserve governor said in an interview on CNBC Tuesday.

New mortgage bonds now offer yields that are about 1.66 percentage point higher than U.S. Treasuries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That's the most relative to corporate bonds in 17 years. 

Stock futures fluctuated on Wednesday as the latest data showed the U.S. economy expanded at a slower rate than previously thought in the second quarter, fueling speculation the Federal Reserve is nearing the end of its rate-hike cycle.

The yield on 30-year securities has climbed almost 25 basis points over the past three sessions, returning it to levels last seen in mid-November when inflation was still above 7%, more than double the current rate. Ten-year borrowing costs rose to around 4.15%. 

The mortgage company was able to move a lot closer to its goal to become a $1 trillion servicer with the expiration of the final tender offer and closing of the deal.

The acquiring company netted an incremental gain in shareholder buy-in with its previous postponement but not enough to push the transaction forward.

In their latest assessment of the bond market outlook, Morgan Stanley strategists are challenging the former head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's view that losses are likely to deepen.

A subsidiary pushed its tender offer to buy outstanding shares by June 27 further out after a small percentage of stockholders failed to accept by the original expiration date.

Investors are piling into longer-dated notes on bets that policy makers will succeed in taming inflation, an outcome that will deliver strong and stable returns on debt.

Treasury bills maturing in the first half of June rallied as trading resumed following the Memorial Day holiday, after a deal to lift the debt ceiling eased concern over the prospect of a calamitous U.S. default.