Both Dick Van Dyke and Mel Brooks turn 100, Dick in less than two weeks and Mel next summer. 100 years is a long time, and it’s a big number. Despite faster economic growth than peers, the U.S. faces rising deficits and debt levels above 100 percent of GDP. If this impacts our debt ratings further, look out. Political gridlock and reluctance to enact meaningful tax increases or spending cuts echo challenges seen in the UK and France, where governments struggle to satisfy voters, lenders, and economic needs simultaneously. Recent market jitters, such as the spike in Treasury yields in April, serve as warnings of potential debt-market instability if political inaction persists. For something more constructive to think about for lenders, today Marcia Davies, COO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, joins L1 for one of her last interviews before retirement, and tomorrow’s The Big Picture at 3PM ET features Mike Yu, CEO of Vesta, for a fast, insightful conversation on the future of loan origination systems and what it means to rebuild the LOS from the ground up. Mike shares the Vesta origin story, why legacy systems have reached their limits, and how a true platform approach built on open architecture and modern APIs is reshaping how lenders design their tech stacks. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s are sponsored by Two Dots, whose conversational screening agent replaces manual underwriting with a streamlined, end-to-end process that reduces risk and fraud while securing safer borrowers, increasing profitable loan volume, and lowering underwriting overhead. Today’s has an interview with U.S. Bank’s Shelly Kobb and Ohio Housing’s Tom Walker on how Housing Finance Agencies work, the challenges they face in expanding affordable homeownership, the policy and political developments shaping their future, and the innovations and outreach strategies needed to keep their programs sustainable, effective, and accessible.)

Mortgage rates improved more noticeably today, and while the average rate isn’t quite as low as it was last week, it’s fairly close.  Rates are based on movement in the bond market. Bonds were most likely to move in response to one or both of today’s big economic reports.  Oddly enough, most of the bond market improvement was seen overnight, BEFORE the economic data came out. Nonetheless, the data definitely didn’t hurt.

Absolute will add Fidelity Digital Mortgage’s 55 producing loan officers to its team of roughly 190.

In the New Jersey case, MV Realty and its principals agreed to pay $28 million in fines and restitution for these “Homeowner Benefit Agreements.”

Billions in home equity sit untapped as second-lien loans struggle to gain traction, writes the chairman of Whalen Global Advisors.

In a relatively mild oversight hearing in the House Financial Services Committee Tuesday morning, regulatory heads at the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, National Credit Union Administration and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. outlined plans for reduced capital requirements and debanking enforcement.

The Troy, Michigan-based lender and servicer faces at least seven lawsuits over a hack in June allegedly perpetrated by a known ransomware gang.

Steady Gains Throughout The Day

Bonds began the day in modestly weaker territory although MBS were fairly quick to get back to ‘unchanged’ while 10yr Treasuries couldn’t duplicate that feat until the afternoon. There were no clear correlations with other markets and no notable risks on the econ calendar. The gains were slow and steady enough to suggest an absence of discrete catalysts. That could change on Wednesday with the confluence of ADP and ISM Services–both capable of influencing the bond market, even before the shutdown data dynamics temporarily magnified private data’s importance.

Econ Data / Events

ISM Manufacturing Employment (Nov)

44.0 vs — f’cast, 46.0 prev

ISM Manufacturing PMI (Nov)

48.2 vs 48.6 f’cast, 48.7 prev

ISM Mfg Prices Paid (Nov)

58.5 vs 59.5 f’cast, 58.0 prev

Market Movement Recap

10:38 AM Weaker start, but bouncing back a bit now.  MBS up 2 ticks (.06) and 10yr yield up 1bp at 4.098

01:13 PM Best levels of the day with MBS up 3 ticks (.09) and 10yr up only half a bp at 4.092

03:43 PM Just a bit stronger. MBS up 5 ticks (.16) and 10yr down 0.1bps at 4.087

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and its union filed legal briefs Friday after a district court judge asked if a preliminary injunction aimed at preventing a mass layoff is still in effect.

Planet Home Lending, helped by growing recapture and distributed retail volume, did 64% more originations in the third quarter than one year prior.