Is All News Bad News For Bonds? Will CPI Matter?

Is All News Bad News For Bonds? Will CPI Matter?

At times these day, it may seem like all news is bad news for bonds.  Higher tariffs hurt us in mid April, and lower tariffs are hurting us now.  There are reasons for the paradox. Higher tariffs initially helped quite a bit, but overly high tariffs caused a liquidation that hurt both sides of the market. The 90 day US/China pause announced this morning leaves tariffs high enough to put upward pressure on rates via the inflation channel, and low enough to rob rates of the bullish impulse from the recession channel. The lack of finality means we're waiting months and months before accurately understanding the impacts, and the big bounce in stocks suggests there's room to unwind previous "risk-off" trades in the meantime. 

Market Movement Recap
08:48 AM

MBS up about an eighth and 10yr down 2.4bps at 4.446

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Is All News Bad News For Bonds?

MBS & Treasury Markets
UMBS 5.5 98.66 -0.09 10YR 4.498% +0.028% 5/13/2025 1:47PM EST
Monthly Core CPI 0.237 vs 0.3 f'cast, 0.1 prev Annual Core CPI 2.8 vs 2.8 f'cast, 2.8 prev The market wasn't expecting fireworks from today's CPI and despite a brief, initial reaction, that looks like a fair assessment.  Had these numbers arrived without the tariff backdrop. the case for a Fed rate cut would be building, but not so much as to be a no-brainer.  After all, monthly CPI needs to be averaging 0.17, and 0.237 is higher than ...   READ MORE
Today's Mortgage Rates
30YR Fixed 6.92% +0.00% 15YR Fixed 6.26% -0.01% 5/13/2025
Tariffs and trade policy have been a new and important consideration for the bond market for just over a month now. That matters to mortgage rates because mortgage pricing is primarily determined by bond prices.   The reaction function for rates is a bit complicated at first glance because tariffs can exert influence in opposite directions. To whatever extent trade policy results in lower economic growth, it would generally be good for rates, all other things be...   READ MORE
Economic Calendar
Time Event Period Actual Forecast Prior
Tuesday, May 13
6:00AM Apr NFIB Business Optimism Index Apr 95.8 94.5 97.4
8:30AM Apr m/m Headline CPI (%) Apr 0.2% 0.3% -0.1%
8:30AM Apr m/m CORE CPI (%) Apr 0.2% 0.3% 0.1%
8:30AM Apr y/y Headline CPI (%) Apr 2.3% 2.4% 2.4%
8:30AM Apr y/y CORE CPI (%) Apr 2.8% 2.8% 2.8%
Wednesday, May 14
12:00AM Roll Date - UMBS 15YR, Ginnie Mae 15YR
5:15AM Fed Waller Speech
7:00AM May/09 MBA Purchase Index May/09 162.8
7:00AM May/09 MBA Refi Index May/09 721
9:10AM Fed Jefferson Speech
10:30AM May/09 Crude Oil Inventory (ml) May/09 -2.4M -2.032M
5:40PM Fed Daly Speech
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The market is constantly making bets on where the Fed Funds Rate will end up for any given moment many months into the future. As such, that rate expectation is constantly changing. It will continue to change, and it will change in different ways for different time frames. For example the futures contracts that pertain to June's Fed meeting will indicate a different rate than the contracts for ... READ MORE