Chris Munson
SVP and Managing Director US Sales and Operations
The Money House

Weaker Start. Bonds Not Recovering With Oil So Far

Weaker Start. Bonds Not Recovering With Oil So Far

The overnight and early domestic trading hours have brought a mix of familiar and unfamiliar patterns. Up until roughly 8:30am, we saw a very familiar correlation between oil prices and bond yields. Both spiked at 6am following reports that 2 Iranian missiles hit a U.S. warship. Those reports were subsequently denied and oil prices made a full recovery. The unfamiliar pattern involves bonds breaking ranks with oil to move noticeably higher at 9:20am. There are no obvious explanations in the news or on the data calendar. That basically leaves conjecture. Given the timing, one possibility is that traders wanted to free up cash to "play" in equities markets during peak earnings season. This could also be driven by structural shifts in response to budget concerns. Either way, yields are very close to last Wednesday's highs (the highest since March 27th).

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Some Volatility Surrounding Headlines, But Not Much Change

MBS & Treasury Markets
UMBS 5.0 98.18 -0.52 10YR 4.448% +0.073% 5/4/2026 2:25PM EST
The market is actively reacting to a swath of war-related headlines that all generally speak to the notion of escalation in the Iran war. Bond yields are moving up with oil prices, but are also exhibiting some of their own negative momentum even when oil prices have plateaued.  10yr yields are up 8bps at 4.454--now breaking up and over the most recent technical ceiling at 4.42. MBS are down 18 ticks (.56) on the day and more than a quarter point from most lenders' ...   READ MORE
Today's Mortgage Rates
30YR Fixed 6.52% +0.08% 15YR Fixed 6.04% +0.03% 5/4/2026
Low volatility was the most obvious theme for mortgage rates last week. From April 14th through last Friday, the range for a top-tier 30yr fixed rate remained in an ultra-narrow range of 6.29-6.33%. That trend persisted on Monday of this week, but things changed abruptly after that. Tuesday and Wednesday saw moderately big increases that took the average all the way up to 6.50%.  The past two days have been much calmer by comparison, even if rates remain elevated ver...   READ MORE
Economic Calendar
Time Event Period Actual Forecast Prior
Monday, May 04
8:00AM Apr Total Vehicle Sales (ml) Apr 15.9M 16.0M 16.3M
10:00AM Mar Factory orders mm (%) Mar 1.5% 0.5% 0%
12:50PM Fed Williams Speech
2:00PM Loan Officer Survey
Tuesday, May 05
8:00AM Feb Building Permits (ml) Feb 1.386M
8:00AM Mar Building Permits (ml) Mar
8:30AM Mar Trade Gap (bl) Mar $-60.5B $-57.3B
9:45AM Apr S&P Global Services PMI Apr 51.3 49.8
9:45AM Apr S&P Global Composite PMI Apr 52.0 50.3
10:00AM Feb New Home Sales (ml) Feb 0.587M
10:00AM Feb New Home Sales (%) (%) Feb -17.6%
10:00AM Apr ISM N-Mfg PMI Apr 53.7 54.0
10:00AM Apr ISM Services Employment Apr 45.2
10:00AM Apr ISM Services Prices Apr 70.7
10:00AM Apr ISM Biz Activity Apr 53.9
10:00AM Apr ISM Services New Orders Apr 60.6
10:00AM Mar New Home Sales (%) (%) Mar -17.6%
10:00AM Mar JOLTs Job Quits (ml) Mar 2.974M
10:00AM Mar USA JOLTS Job Openings (ml) Mar 6.83M 6.882M
10:00AM Mar New Home Sales (ml) Mar 0.668M
10:00AM Fed Bowman Speech
10:10AM May IBD economic optimism May 42 42.8
10:20AM NY Fed Bill Purchases 1 to 4 months (%) $7.585 billion
11:30AM 6-Week Bill Auction (%) 3.590%
12:30PM Fed Barr Speech
Chris Munson
SVP and Managing Director US Sales and Operations
The Money House