- 10 hours ago
On today’s episode, Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler talks with Lead Analyst Logan Mohtashami about the jobs report and how it's affecting the 10-year yield and mortgage rates.
Related to this episode:
Even a missed jobs report and the Fed talking dovish aren’t keeping yields lower
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/even-a-missed-jobs-report-and-the-fed-talking-dovish-arent-keeping-yields-lower/
HousingWire | YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDD_3y3LvU60vac7eki-6Q
More info about HousingWire
https://lnk.bio/housingwire
Top 5 Trending:
FHFA set to order Fannie, Freddie to accept two-bureau credit reports
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/fhfa-bi-merge-credit-reports-fannie-freddie/
GSEs grant policy waiver for lenders not ready for UAD 3.6 mandate
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/gses-temporary-uad-3-6-exception-sellers-2027-timeline/
Even a missed jobs report and the Fed talking dovish aren’t keeping yields lower
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/even-a-missed-jobs-report-and-the-fed-talking-dovish-arent-keeping-yields-lower/
Mortgage Banking Summit: FHFA’s unified LLPA grid for FICO, VantageScore raises investor concerns
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/fhfa-unified-llpa-grid-fico-vantagescore/
MLS data is more valuable than ever. The industry has to decide how to protect it
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/mls-data-licensing-ai/
Want more from Sarah? Don’t forget to subscribe!
The HousingWire Daily podcast brings the full picture of the most compelling stories in the housing market reported across HousingWire. Each morning, listen to editor in chief Sarah Wheeler talk to leading industry voices and get a deeper look behind the scenes of the top mortgage and real estate.
Related to this episode:
Even a missed jobs report and the Fed talking dovish aren’t keeping yields lower
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/even-a-missed-jobs-report-and-the-fed-talking-dovish-arent-keeping-yields-lower/
HousingWire | YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDD_3y3LvU60vac7eki-6Q
More info about HousingWire
https://lnk.bio/housingwire
Top 5 Trending:
FHFA set to order Fannie, Freddie to accept two-bureau credit reports
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/fhfa-bi-merge-credit-reports-fannie-freddie/
GSEs grant policy waiver for lenders not ready for UAD 3.6 mandate
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/gses-temporary-uad-3-6-exception-sellers-2027-timeline/
Even a missed jobs report and the Fed talking dovish aren’t keeping yields lower
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/even-a-missed-jobs-report-and-the-fed-talking-dovish-arent-keeping-yields-lower/
Mortgage Banking Summit: FHFA’s unified LLPA grid for FICO, VantageScore raises investor concerns
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/fhfa-unified-llpa-grid-fico-vantagescore/
MLS data is more valuable than ever. The industry has to decide how to protect it
https://www.housingwire.com/articles/mls-data-licensing-ai/
Want more from Sarah? Don’t forget to subscribe!
The HousingWire Daily podcast brings the full picture of the most compelling stories in the housing market reported across HousingWire. Each morning, listen to editor in chief Sarah Wheeler talk to leading industry voices and get a deeper look behind the scenes of the top mortgage and real estate.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:11Welcome, everyone. I'm joined today by lead analyst Logan Modashami to talk about the jobs
00:16report and the reaction we saw from the 10-year yield. Before we dive in, here are the top five
00:21articles on HousingWire.com. First is FHFA set to order Fannie Freddie to accept two bureau credit
00:28reports, followed by GSE's grant policy waiver for lenders not ready for UAD 3.6 mandate. Then we
00:35have even a missed jobs report and the Fed talking devish aren't keeping yields lower, which we're
00:40talking about today. And reporting for our mortgage banking summit on FHFA's unified LLPA grid raises
00:46investor concern. Finally, we have MLS data is more valuable than ever. The industry has to decide how
00:53to protect it. Okay, we're ready to dive in and we are in person in our studio. Logan, this is
00:58really
00:59fun. Yes, this is a whole nother level. And we have so much to talk about today. Yes, first, I
01:04just want
01:05to give some rocks. You know, we got ranked number 11 in the country. You know, we're already an award
01:10winning podcast. And she's got to put up with me. Imagine the last four years trying to manage the
01:17chart daddy, which is not fun, but jobs Friday. And, you know, when I when I write the jobs article,
01:25it's it's I take all the data right after and I kind of told Sarah, I said, let's just wait
01:30a little
01:30bit. Because I am not quite convinced on the 10 year yield. And as the you saw the 10 year
01:37yield go
01:38from 5.34% on Thursday morning. Then we had the Fed Vice President Jefferson come out and basically
01:46sound dovish trying to push back on the October rate hike. Lori Logan, who's one of the hawks
01:53from early on from many, many months ago, she even came out and some people deemed it to be hawkish.
02:00But I mean, we've been talking about this in the podcast for months. The Fed hawks want all their
02:05rate cuts back from last year, they felt like they were forced to cut rates because of labor data and
02:10they didn't really want to but they want to get those back. So even Lori Logan, in some ways was
02:16somewhat dovish because all she's talked about is we just need a 50 basis point increase and then
02:21we'll be fine. The market was really priced for more rate hikes going into 2027. So we've had in a
02:29sense, at least how I look at it, two very two dovish Fed members trying to talk back aggressive
02:36rate hiking and even one of the hawks just saying, hey, listen, we're going to we're going to stop
02:41right there. And then the jobs report came out and then the jobs report misestimates. But really,
02:49you know, the break evens is so low. Does that move the needle with the Fed? I don't think it
02:55does.
02:55The unemployment rate technically went from like 4.14 percent to 4.18 percent. Not a big move either
03:02way. Government jobs were the big loser of the month. And the 10 year yield went all the way down
03:09to 5.17. And then throughout the day, kept on shooting up, went flat for the day. And then
03:15last time I checked was about four bases up. So we're at 5.29. And Sarah and I have talked
03:24about
03:24this six weeks ago. We thought that until the midterms is over, we might see some crazy things.
03:31And we have seen some crazy things, of course. I've only seen the bond market react positively
03:39in a good way when the conflict was over and the MOU deal was signed and oil went all the
03:46way down to
03:4668. And because of that, they were completely fine with taking yields lower. And now the longer this
03:55conflict has gone on, the more embedded the inflation is in the Federal Reserve's mind.
04:00And the bond market just doesn't care. It doesn't care even that we've gotten a lot more oil into the
04:07straight of performance. We are elevated with still a risk of escalation. And after that MOU deal broke
04:14off, bond yields started to go up higher. We were fighting with Iran during market hours. That was
04:22not what we've been accustomed to. And then when President Trump said, hey, listen, nothing's
04:27going to get done until after the midterm. So I'm going with that game plan from six weeks ago until
04:33I actually see how the bond market reacts when there's a deal done. Because I think the bond market
04:38is like, homie, we don't trust anyone. And we're not falling for those headlines anymore. So I think
04:44the bond market has wised up to what's going on. And maybe that could explain today's
04:51actions because it's Friday. We're going into weekends. It's October. It's different. This
04:56month is going to be different. You either close out with a deal or you have a big question mark,
05:03especially if Trump doesn't get what he wants and the Republicans keep the House and the Senate,
05:09you might get into a much bigger conflict after that. And who knows? That's an X variable that we're
05:17all trying to. So I'm trying to make sense of today's 10-year yield movement.
05:21Well, I appreciate that because I think when we see a jobs mess, I think there was a collective like,
05:26okay, maybe. And we started to see things tick down. I was like, yay, that's great.
05:31And it just went right back up. And it's hard to know. Are they looking at inflation? They looking
05:36at jobs? They looking at the conflict? They're ignoring all of it. What is happening?
05:39You know, when you have two dovish Fed voters, John Williams of New York Fed and Richardson came
05:47out. And then you have Lori Logan, who could have, she could have easily said, hey, listen,
05:53we might need to do more than take back the insurance rate. She could have said that and
05:58the market was already pricing that. She didn't. That's a clue to me that the Fed is starting to
06:04worry about the long end of the bond market. And technically, that's like their third mandate.
06:09They're supposed to keep that a little bit calm. That didn't work. I mean, it did work on Thursday.
06:16Now we're Friday morning. So you had the jobs and then the yields just shot right back. Now,
06:20of course, it isn't higher. But I think this is a wake-up call for everyone, for the White House,
06:30for JD Vance, for bond traders, for mortgage and real estate people. What usually happens for this
06:40month might not work until we get some closure out there. So whatever the polling is on inflation
06:48or higher mortgage rates. I know Kevin Hassett came out this morning, the economic chief head of
06:56the economic council for the White House. So we want lower mortgage rates. Whatever is going on
07:01right now, it's not working in trying to calm the bond market down, either from the Federal Reserve
07:07side. So the Fed governors need to have a team meeting on this. If you have issues with the bond
07:14market, then there needs to be a little bit more of an aggressive message. If you don't have an issue
07:20with the bond market, I'm sure Beth Hammock was probably mad. She was probably pissed off that
07:26the 10-year yield was lower. She's going to write something on LinkedIn about it right now, about
07:29why did the 10-year yield go lower? What's going on here? But if you don't care, then you just
07:35let
07:36the market do its thing. But I thought there was a clear message to try to calm things down.
07:41Now, by the end of Friday afternoon, by that comes, who knows where the 10-year yield would be.
07:48But I'm cautious of this month, as we were cautious weeks ago, that when the president says
07:56this is going to end after the midterms, you don't know how this is going to turn out. Even with
08:03more
08:04oil flowing in the strait. Of course, we're going to get a CPI report two weeks from now. So we're
08:10going
08:10to have a kind of a mild week. But clearly, this is a very interesting jobs week. And taking all
08:19the
08:19data and the aggregate total, I think still some people are confused about the labor market.
08:25Okay. Well, when you're saying this, what it reminds me of is just like, okay,
08:30oh, I have a movie. I have a movie analogy. It reminds me of the bus in Speed, right? Where
08:36it's
08:36just like out of control. It's right. There's no brakes. They've been disabled. You've got people
08:40on the bus. How are we doing this? Because it's like, if the White House really can't do anything
08:44about it, if the Fed can't really do anything about it, it's like, where are the guardrails that,
08:49I mean, can it just go anywhere? Are you Sandra Bullock in Speed?
08:53Oh, I will. Yes. I would love that. Okay. All right. All right. I got to be Keanu Reeves then.
08:58Okay. And what was it? Pop quiz hotshot. I think that's Dennis Hopper. I think he was the evil guy
09:06on Speed. So pop quiz hotshot, labor data, only 29,000 jobs. What have we tried to stress here?
09:14When you have labor force growth slowly moving lower and lower, you can have four to five reports
09:20be negative in the year and not have the unemployment rate go up really. And we as a
09:29country, and I don't know who wants to take the leadership. I mean, I could talk about it all I
09:34want. Nobody's going to care, but somebody in the White House or an economic is going to have to
09:39explain to everyone in America, if population growth is declining and slowing, the end of the job
09:46boom in America is over, right? So this is why you can have very, very low job prints and the
09:53unemployment rate go, this is what Japan is, right? Everybody mocks Japan's economy because they're
09:58dying. If you do not have population growth, you have limits. Now for a while there, ICE wasn't
10:05arresting people as much. And some economists were talking about, well, hey, listen, the jobs data is
10:11getting better because we're not deporting as many people. And now we're deporting more again.
10:17I can't make that. I just don't have enough evidence to use that analogy. My things are
10:22different. First year of a trade war and then the second year get better. But my break evens are 78
10:28,000
10:29because I use a little bit of a different diffusion rate and population control adjustments. But the
10:33Federal Reserve, I mean, a really smart economist that I know is a friend who worked with the White House
10:39before, he's got the break evens at zero. Oh my gosh.
10:43You know, because population growth is the slowest it might be ever. I mean, going back a very,
10:51very long time. Now, I like to average the population growth data, smooth it out a little
10:55bit because we had some really big numbers before this big slowdown. So you average it out, my break
11:01evens are going to be naturally higher than everyone else's. But if we have zero jobs needed for break
11:07evens, the country needs to know this, right? Because it's confusing to everyone. No matter
11:12how much I say break evens are a big thing. The first initial reaction is over 29,000 jobs. The
11:18Fed
11:18is behind the curve and everything. This is not working out to what people think because the
11:24unemployment rate literally went from four point, you know, one, four percent to four point. It's
11:29nothing. It's not material in a big way. And jobless claims are still low. So somebody has to take
11:35the mantle. If nobody's going to do it, I'm going to have to do it then, you know, and talk
11:39about break evens more. But I understand the initial frustration of people in the real estate
11:46and mortgage industry looking at these low job numbers. And the break evens used to be
11:51like 240,000 to 240,000. I mean, not that long ago. Just a few years ago. And it's come
11:57down
11:58a lot. So you could have a very, very low unemployment rate for a very long time. And
12:04how many years have I said this? You and I have known each other. I'm more afraid of not having
12:10enough workers than AI taking all the jobs. And early this year, and by the way, for those people
12:15who say, oh, the bond market is afraid of $40 trillion of debt. Homies, y'all say this when yields
12:23are rising. And then when the 10-year yield is back down to 4%, like it has every single
12:28year, you know, what happened to that 40? It's, to me, the Federal Reserve got hawkish. They
12:33ran hawkish. We have a conflict still going on. Inflation is above target. Nominal growth
12:38is still, I mean, we can have a nominal growth print of like 7%, 8% in Q3. These things
12:43are
12:44moving around. I can make a really big case of 10-year yield on a historical basis is still
12:48lower than it should be based on that. So we have a lot of confusing things. And I wish
12:54more prominent people than myself are talking about this in more of the national sense so people can
13:01understand why these low job numbers doesn't budge the Federal Reserve at all.
13:06So let's talk about that for just a second, because, you know, you talked about Japan. We've
13:10talked about other countries where they're facing this real population decline, which in a, you know,
13:18do you feel like, you know, so say something happens in the midterms, or even in two years,
13:22if we had a change of administration, is it something where you can sort of flip the switch
13:28on that immigration? And because a lot of these other countries don't have any, they don't have a
13:34history of immigration. They don't really like immigration. They, they, they're not set up that
13:38way. We, we are. I mean, we're a nation of immigrants. Is it something you can turn on and,
13:42and make that problem go away? Um, you, you could, I don't think we're in the political
13:48environment to do so. Uh, um, of course there's a difference between legal, uh, immigration and
13:56legal. I think you as, uh, as, as a country, you have to be mindful of the labor force growth
14:03and what Japan is doing is Japan is desperate for people. And I think that's, that's, that's
14:09understandable for them. I don't think we are in the dire situation that, uh, some people are
14:15talking about just because we have a lot of millennials, we have a lot of Gen Z and we
14:18have a lot of Gen A. Uh, so, uh, population growth slowing for this year. I like to average
14:23it out the last three years because it was, it was a little bit higher than normal, uh, the years
14:28before. Uh, but over time, man, if you, because the bait, what, what do we always say? You know,
14:36tombstone economics, people, none of us, what was the, what was the famous saying I had for years?
14:42No country has a Dorian Gray label market. If you do not know who Dorian Gray is, shame on you.
14:47You also like to say, um, everyone's going to die. We're all going to die. We're all going to die.
14:51We're all going to die. Yes. Yes. A lot of people don't like that when I say it, but it's
14:55true. I'm
14:56like, you're not Dorian Gray, are you? And some people go, who's Dorian Gray? I was like,
15:01read books for that. You know, in any case, why do I always say no country has a Dorian Gray
15:06labor
15:06market? Because we, nature, nature, nature wins. We age, we leave the workforce, we die. We need to
15:14be replaced. Right? So, um, uh, I'm not in the dire camp like some other people are, are, are saying,
15:21but if this is going to be the case going out, boy, we better have robots being able to do
15:27some work,
15:28you know, 30, 40 years from now, like I've seen in some of these presentations, uh, because the baby
15:33boomers are leaving, they're going to die off. We're going to replace them, but we are a growing
15:37economy, right? You know, this is why so many people want AI and robots to win because they can
15:43give us growth without needing the labor market. But then it's like, people go, well, I don't have
15:47a job. Where do I get the money? There's all these crazy things about what's going to happen over the
15:51next 50 or 60 years. But one thing is for sure, the world is getting older and a lot of
15:56countries,
15:57you know, China, Japan, and Europe, their prime age population has been declining for years,
16:02right? So their economies aren't like shattering or collapsing with China is to a degree. Uh,
16:08we still have a good replacement workforce. So I'm not in that dire camp yet. We still have over 164
16:14million people working all together. And we still have a healthy number of replacement workers and
16:18consumers, but it's something to think about. So, uh, uh, it can't be somebody like me talking about
16:24this all the time and somebody have the white house or somebody has to start explaining. So
16:28people understand why the federal reserve is like, Hey guys, we don't see the labor market breaking,
16:33but people see these low job numbers and they go, well, whatever this happens in the past,
16:37you know, the economy goes into recession. It's not working in work in 2022, three, four, five,
16:42or six, because jobless claims aren't breaking corporate profits are. So one of the things we talked
16:47about in the, uh, housing wire, uh, uh, uh, uh, mortgage banking summit is that think of it as
16:53corporate profits, pricing power, corporations are using that pricing power to their advantage
16:59wage growth, which hit 3% today, right? So what does the federal reserve think if the federal reserve
17:05could get wage growth under 3% and productivity is running at 1%, that's the best way for them to
17:11get
17:11to 2% inflation. So they're happy about that, but Americans are, Hey, my, my costs have gone up.
17:16Now my wage growth is here. Real wages are down, you know, so there's a lot, but, um, we, we,
17:24we have to have an honest conversation about this because if it is true that we are just not growing
17:30anymore, uh, and we're, we're, we're, we're, we're basing all of our growth on AI and robots,
17:36you know, there's, there's limits to that kind of thing. And, uh, um, it's go this month,
17:43Sarah, this month, if we could just get past through this month and something gets done,
17:49that'll be a positive. But, uh, uh, like I said, in our, uh, presentation yesterday, this is the
17:54most complicated year, uh, I've seen in a while, you know, COVID was, Hey, listen, it's nobody was
18:01working. And then everybody started working again, you know, uh, 2022, the fed went on an aggressive
18:06fed rate hike cycle, and they kept doing until the fed funds rate got above the growth rate of
18:11inflation, at least a 2%. They wanted to get restrictive. Okay. We get that 2008 was a
18:16credit crisis that we get that, but this year, this year is, is crazy. You know, this year is
18:22very complicated. You can't just make up stuff and throw stuff in the air. So I think, uh, uh, again,
18:28if you guys don't want to listen to the chart, daddy, make sure you listen to people who are not
18:32ideologues, left-wing or right-wing or stock traders or special middle-aged middle-aged
18:37management podcast, stock traders, they're the worst. Um, uh, and just kind of have somebody
18:42even keel to just try to explain all this because it is very confusing to the normal person, which I
18:48totally get. So, um, you mentioned the mortgage banking summit, which we had, uh, this week,
18:53you did a great job, great presentation. Um, what I heard a lot, um, in conversations with you,
19:00and with other people, um, was that confusion over a recession, but isn't this leading to a
19:07recession? If we're seeing this on jobs, isn't that a recession? And then people would think,
19:11oh, rates are going to go lower because, you know, we're in a recession. We, I heard a lot of
19:14variations of that yesterday. And I think that it's important that you're like, don't, it's a
19:19different conversation. It's, we have not had recessionary data really since 2006 and seven.
19:28I mean, I'm dead honest when I say that, you know, we, we, you know, we have, everyone has
19:33their own recession models, but I, you know, I need residential construction workers to lose their
19:37job. I need manufacturing workers to lose their jobs at the same time. I need to see industrial
19:42production and investment and consumption, real wages start to fall. Um, it can't be corporate
19:48profits are rising and taking it higher. So, um, jobless claims are just too low. Economic growth
19:56is nominal growth is over 6%. These are not recessionary data lines, but, uh, it's confusing,
20:02right? We also live in a day of social media where a bunch of, pardon my language, do I even
20:08say
20:08pardon my language? We have a bunch of jackasses just running around the internet and just basically
20:13every day, this is the end. There's a foreclosure crisis. This is, uh, the, the, we're, we're going to
20:19get hyperinflation. And we're, I mean, we, we just, we're surrounded by a bunch of jackasses who
20:24confuse people. I'm glad that people share me these videos. I can't watch more than 10 seconds
20:29of it. It's such trash. It's like people sell their souls to Faust for getting nothing. You ain't
20:34going to get nothing for this stuff. This is how your adult life is. Your kids are going to look
20:37at
20:37you. My dad was a jackass doom pointing his adult life until he's dead in the afterlife, man.
20:42But when a recession happens, there are certain things that need to occur. We have not actually
20:48had them since 2006 and seven. Uh, um, and we, COVID was a recession. That was a sharp, I mean,
20:55go back in January, February of 2020 data. Industrial production was up. Retail sales were up. PMI data
21:01was up. Housing broke out. New homes, all these things, none of them were recessionary. We had a
21:06bunch of clowns in 2019 talking about a recession too. So you have to be careful who you listen to.
21:11If you don't want to listen to me, I trust me. I get it. I'm not for everyone. Uh, but
21:15there are
21:16other people out there who are sane and not ideologues and not in the business of drawing
21:21attention to themselves for clicks. Well, we, we talked a lot about, uh, the jobs report. Um,
21:28understandably anything else in our few minutes left that you want to talk about for this weekend?
21:32It's all, it's always gives me some stress when we do a Friday podcast, because we have no idea
21:38what's going to happen between now and Monday morning when this comes out. So the last thing
21:42is now you've, now you've had a few fed members talk about the housing market where, uh, the smirk
21:47of Austin Goolsby said, we're going to disproportionately hurt sectors that aren't
21:52causing the inflation. He's talking about housing. Uh, Neil Kashkari said, you know, the housing market
21:56is already strained and it's going to be disproportionately hit. Uh, Kevin Warsh talked
22:01about, you know, uh, always, you know, uh, uh, uh, policy isn't restrictive enough, obviously
22:07for the economy not to expand, but it is for the housing market. Uh, you're seeing some
22:13acknowledgement that, uh, uh, the housing market is going to be the, the sector gets disproportionately
22:18hit here. I, one of the things I talked about, you know, the federal reserve's mandate does
22:23not actually work with the existing home sales report, but we've had many periods, many cycles,
22:28you know, uh, home sales peaked in 2005 during the housing bubble. It took 2006, seven, and eight
22:34took years before it crashed. We didn't grow sales really until like 2014. So we've had periods of
22:42times where we have, you know, uh, many years, four or five, six years before sales start to grow.
22:48Uh, again, we saw that in 1986 to 1991, you know, uh, home sales boomed, uh, and prices boomed during
22:54the late seventies and they had that big crash, uh, uh, in sales. Uh, sometimes it takes, sometimes
23:00it always usually takes a few years to get things going, but here, at least there's an acknowledgement
23:07that this is not so much housing related. It's not like rents are taking off. It's not like home
23:12prices are taking off, but the federal reserve's tools really impacts this sector. Their tools don't
23:19really like, you can't just hike and get more oil out. You can't hike. And then all of a sudden
23:24Trump takes the trade war out, you know, but if you did take those two variables out of the equation,
23:30then at least that's something where the federal reserve says, okay, these two things are things
23:35we don't like, and we're going to stay hawkish until they get resolved. Uh, uh, so, you know, we,
23:40we always like to talk about the fed, but this is our choice. This is what, you know, uh, we,
23:46we're, we're doing this, so we have to pay the consequences for it.
23:51Logan, thank you so much for walking us through this, uh, very confusing Friday. And, um, like
23:56you said, it's October. We're going to buckle up for the whole month. We will be here.
24:00We got to think about scary Halloween outfits. Like what, what am I like, you know, the, my,
24:05my favorite ones, if the U S dollar got to one 15, I was going to be the U S
24:09dollar for Halloween,
24:10but, uh, I'll think of something up for our next podcast on what I'll be for Halloween.
24:14Okay. You guys have to look forward to that. You have to watch it on YouTube.
24:18Logan, really. Thank you so much. We'll talk soon.
24:20Pleasure.