April 23, 2020 Headlines

Treasuries are little changed and U.S. equity futures are modestly higher following the release of last week’s jobless claims data. Initial claims for the week ended April 18 were just below expectations at 4.4 million, bringing the 5-week total to 26.5 million. Self-inflicted or not, that is the sharpest collapse of the U.S. labor market since the Great Depression. If all who have collected unemployment benefits are counted as unemployment in the monthly household survey, it would equate to an April unemployment rate of approximately 20%.

The FHFA announced yesterday that it would approve the purchase of certain single-family mortgages in forbearance by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. According to a separate Fannie Mae announcement, it would apply to certain loans that have placed in COVID-19-related forbearance after loan closing but prior to loan sale, and the loans must be no more than one month delinquent at the time of the sale. This move is meant to help ease liquidity pressures in the mortgage industry, and it follows the announcement a day before than servicers with scheduled/scheduled payment remittance would only be required to advance four months of principal & interest for GSE-backed loans.

Jason Haley
Chief Investment Officer

DateEventSurveyActualPriorRevised
4/20/2020Chicago Fed Nat Activity Index-3-4.190.160.06
4/21/2020Existing Home Sales5.25m5.27m5.77m5.76m
4/21/2020Existing Home Sales MoM-9.00%-8.50%6.50%6.30%
4/22/2020MBA Mortgage Applications—-0.30%7.30%—
4/22/2020FHFA House Price Index MoM0.30%0.70%0.30%0.50%
4/23/2020Initial Jobless Claims4500k4427k5245k5237k
4/23/2020Continuing Claims16738k15976k11976k11912k
4/23/2020Bloomberg Economic Expectations——46.5—
4/23/2020Bloomberg Consumer Comfort——44.5—
4/23/2020Markit US Manufacturing PMI35—48.5—
4/23/2020Markit US Services PMI30—39.8—
4/23/2020Markit US Composite PMI——40.9—
4/23/2020New Home Sales644k—765k—
4/23/2020New Home Sales MoM-15.80%—-4.40%—
4/23/2020Kansas City Fed Manf. Activity-37—-17—
4/24/2020Durable Goods Orders-12.00%—1.20%—
4/24/2020Durables Ex Transportation-6.30%—-0.60%—
4/24/2020Cap Goods Orders Nondef Ex Air-6.70%—-0.90%—
4/24/2020Cap Goods Ship Nondef Ex Air-7.00%—-0.80%—
4/24/2020U. of Mich. Sentiment67.9—71—
4/24/2020U. of Mich. Current Conditions——72.4—
4/24/2020U. of Mich. Expectations——70—
4/24/2020U. of Mich. 1 Yr Inflation——2.10%—
4/24/2020U. of Mich. 5-10 Yr Inflation——2.50%—

 

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