Late Day Volatility on Tariff Speech

Late Day Volatility on Tariff Speech

The long-awaited tariff speech took markets for a ride in both directions this afternoon. After the dust settled, the net effect was "buy bonds, sell stocks." Notably, that was a sharp departure from the initial net effect during the early part of Trump's speech. The ultimately friendly result was enough to get Treasuries back into positive territory and for MBS to get sorta close.  In the bigger picture, the volatility didn't really matter as both stocks and bonds remained in the same old ranges. 

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Late Day Volatility on Tariff Speech

MBS & Treasury Markets
UMBS 5.5 100.29 +0.20 10YR 4.063% -0.061% 4/3/2025 3:18AM EST
In case you were confused about the "reciprocal" comments earlier in Trump's speech, and thought that meant "tit for tat" in direct proportion, Trump just clarified that the math is actually "1/2 tit for 1 tat."  In other words, reciprocal tariffs are half the percentage of foreign tariffs.  Rather than try to make sense of this, let's just focus on what the market is doing: rallying back into positive territory. MBS are back up to unchanged and 10yr yields ar...   READ MORE
Today's Mortgage Rates
30YR Fixed 6.63% -0.12% 15YR Fixed 6.05% -0.09% 4/3/2025
Mortgage rates didn't move much today, which is pretty crazy considering the volatility present in financial markets in the afternoon.  That's when the long awaited tariff announcement speech took place.  There was always a decent chance of a whipsaw in response and a whipsaw is what we got. Fortunately, the net effect for the bond market (bonds dictate interest rates ) was positive. In other words, interest rates received good news while stocks received bad new...   READ MORE
Economic Calendar
Time Event Period Actual Forecast Prior
Wednesday, Apr 02
7:00AM Mar/28 MBA Refi Index Mar/28 710.4 752.4
7:00AM Mar/28 MBA Purchase Index Mar/28 158.2 155.8
8:15AM Mar ADP jobs (k) Mar 155K 105K 77K
9:00AM Mar Total Vehicle Sales (ml) Mar 17.77M 15.9M 16.0M
10:00AM Feb Factory orders mm (%) Feb 0.6% 0.5% 1.7%
10:30AM Mar/28 Crude Oil Inventory (ml) Mar/28 6.165M -2M -3.341M
11:30AM 17-Week Bill Auction 4.200% 4.200%
4:00PM Reciprocal Tariff Plan Announcement (%)
4:30PM Fed Kugler Speech
Thursday, Apr 03
7:30AM Mar Challenger layoffs (k) Mar 275.24K 172.017K
8:30AM Mar/22 Continued Claims (ml) Mar/22 1903K 1860K 1856K
8:30AM Feb Trade Gap (bl) Feb $-122.7B $-123.5B $-131.4B
8:30AM Mar/29 Jobless Claims (k) Mar/29 219K 225K 224K
9:45AM Mar S&P Global Composite PMI Mar 53.5 53.5 51.6
9:45AM Mar S&P Global Services PMI Mar 54.4 54.3 51
10:00AM Mar ISM Services Employment Mar 46.2 53.9
10:00AM Mar ISM Services Prices Mar 60.9 62.6
10:00AM Mar ISM Biz Activity Mar 55.9 54.4
10:00AM Mar ISM N-Mfg PMI Mar 50.8 53 53.5
12:30PM Fed Jefferson Speech
2:30PM Fed Cook Speech
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Heading into the week, market watchers knew (or thought they knew) that Friday's PCE inflation data had a chance to help or hurt interest rates more than any other economic report.  When PCE came out higher than expected on Friday morning, market watchers knew (or thought they knew) what would happen next.  But instead, the opposite happened.    Events like this se... READ MORE