Bonds Picking Up Some Safe-Haven Demand

Bonds Picking Up Some Safe-Haven Demand

In a month where bonds have made a visible reconnection with fuel prices thanks to the Iran war resurgence, there have been several notable departures in the correlation. Today is the latest example. If we're splitting hairs, we can still observe yields and fuel prices generally moving in the same direction overnight, but when fuel prices surged between 4am and 9am, bonds didn't really follow. One of the only ways to reconcile that phenomenon is via the fairly brisk selling in equities. S&P futures have repeatedly bumped into resistance around 7630. Thursday was the latest failure to break that ceiling. Tech-focused stocks are doing even worse and are set to open below their multi-month consolidation/pennant formation. Investors are clearly thinking about capital preservation in the short term rather than buying dips in the stock market. This could all turn on a dime, of course, but until it does, bonds are picking up some of the scraps.

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Ultimately Uneventful Despite Modest Weakness

MBS & Treasury Markets
UMBS 5.5
99.97
+0.09 
10YR TREASURY
4.516
-0.039 
7/17/2026 9:50AM EST
In a month where bonds have made a visible reconnection with fuel prices thanks to the Iran war resurgence, there have been several notable departures in the correlation. Today is the latest example. If we're splitting hairs, we can still observe yields and fuel prices generally moving in the same direction overnight, but when fuel prices surged between 4am and 9am, bonds didn't really follow. One of the only ways to reconcile that phenomenon is via the fairly brisk...   READ MORE
Today's Mortgage Rates
30YR Fixed
6.68%
+0.04% 
15YR Fixed
6.19%
+0.01% 
7/16/2026
While some news stories suggest that rates are the highest in 11 months today, that's not quite true. The highest rates of the year were seen on July 13th and May 19th when our 30yr fixed index hit 6.75%. The index was at 6.68% today, up from 6.64% yesterday. Any news regarding "highest rates since August 2025" is almost certainly citing Freddie Mac's weekly rate index which takes a 5 day trailing average rate through Wednesday and reports it on Thursday.  As for the...   READ MORE
Economic Calendar
Time Event Period Actual Forecast Prior
Friday, Jul 17
12:00AM Roll Date - Ginnie Mae 30YR
8:30AM Jun Housing starts number mm (ml) Jun 1.427M 1.31M 1.177M
8:30AM Jun Import prices mm (%) Jun 0.3% -0.7% 1.9%
8:30AM Jun Building Permits (ml) Jun 1.367M 1.40M 1.41M
9:15AM Jun Industrial Production (%) Jun 0.1% 0.2% 0.1%
10:00AM Jul Sentiment: 1y Inflation (%) Jul 4.2% 4.6%
10:00AM Jul Sentiment: 5y Inflation (%) Jul 3.3% 3.3%
10:00AM Jul Consumer Sentiment (ip) Jul 54.4 51 49.5
10:00AM Jul U Mich conditions Jul 54.9 48.7 47.7
Monday, Jul 20
9:20AM NY Fed Bill Purchases 1 to 4 months (%) $5.180 billion
10:00AM Jun CB Leading Index MoM (%) Jun 0.1% 0.1%