Today's Weakness Mostly War-Related With Small Boost From Fed

Today's Weakness Mostly War-Related With Small Boost From Fed

Because today was was a "Fed day" and because bonds hit their weakest levels of the day after the Fed announcement, we may look back on the selling and blame the Fed. In actuality, the Fed was only a small piece of the puzzle. Specifically, 10yr yields had already moved up from 4.34+ to 4.40 before the Fed announcement. At the 3pm CME close, there was only 1 more basis point of selling (4.41). The overnight/morning weakness was already covered in the morning commentary, but as a reminder, it had to do with the potential for a longer-term blockade of The Strait of Hormuz. There were no major issues with the Fed, but the market didn't like the fact that 3 dissenting voters preferred to abandon the vague reference to future rate cuts via the "additional adjustments" verbiage. 

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Mostly War-Related Weakness With a Small Boost From The Fed

MBS & Treasury Markets
UMBS 5.0 98.59 +0.25 10YR 4.396% -0.035% 4/30/2026 8:10AM EST
Bonds are just a hair weaker than they were before the Fed Announcement, but not for any reasons that are obvious in the announcement itself.  The most notable development was 4 dissenting votes--the most since 1992.  Only one of those dissents was due to disagreement on holding steady vs cutting.  The other 3 dissents cited--in the Fed's own words--disagreement with the "easing bias."   Frankly, we're not sure what the "easing bias" refers t...   READ MORE
Today's Mortgage Rates
30YR Fixed 6.50% +0.12% 15YR Fixed 6.03% +0.09% 4/29/2026
Mortgage rates jumped higher today at the fastest pace in weeks to the highest levels since March 30th. There were two key motivations for the increase, but one accounted for a vast majority of the damage. News came out overnight that spoke to the possibility of a prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Markets took this seriously because it involved conversations with oil executives to assess the the impact of a prolonged blockade on domestic energy markets and fuel p...   READ MORE
Economic Calendar
Time Event Period Actual Forecast Prior
Thursday, Apr 30
8:30AM Apr/25 Jobless Claims (k) Apr/25 189K 215K 214K
8:30AM Apr/18 Continued Claims (k) Apr/18 1,785K 1820K 1821K
8:30AM Mar Core PCE (m/m) (%) Mar 0.3% 0.3% 0.4%
8:30AM Mar PCE (y/y) (%) Mar 3.5% 3.5% 2.8%
8:30AM Q1 Employment costs (%) Q1 0.9% 0.8% 0.7%
8:30AM Q1 GDP Final Sales (%) Q1 1.6% 0.3%
8:30AM Mar Core PCE (y/y) (%) Mar 3.2% 3.2% 3%
8:30AM Q1 PCE Prices (Q/Q) Q1 4.5% 2.9%
8:30AM Q1 GDP (%) Q1 2.0% 2.3% 0.5%
8:30AM Q1 Core PCE Prices QoQ Q1 4.3% 4.1% 2.7%
8:30AM Mar PCE prices (m/m) (%) Mar 0.7% 0.7% 0.4%
9:45AM Apr Chicago PMI Apr 53 52.8
10:00AM Feb CB Leading Index MoM (%) Feb -0.1% -0.1%
Friday, May 01
9:45AM Apr S&P Global Manuf. PMI Apr 54.0 52.3
10:00AM Apr ISM Manufacturing PMI Apr 53 52.7
10:00AM Apr ISM Mfg Prices Paid Apr 80 78.3
10:00AM Apr ISM Manufacturing Employment Apr 49 48.7