Like the good ol’ days when the Cubs played at 1:00 p.m. (there were no lights at Wrigley, so they only played day games at home) and were on WGN. The Braves were on TBS, and the Friday night baseball game was on Fox or ESPN.
The Sawx/Yanks began a huge four-game set last night. The game was being aired on Apple TV.
Let’s just say this. Absolute disaster.
First, it appears that we, the Cowen family, have just about every streaming service. That’s the good news. The bad news? Getting Apple TV to work was an absolute disaster.
Spinning…
App gets deleted from the TV…
Can’t get it added back to the TV…
100% disaster.
The type of thing that causes middle-aged dudes heart issues.
Thankfully, there are a couple of young people living in the house who apparently didn’t want to see me donk off, so they figured it out.
It did cause me to consider looking at what I actually pay for streaming services I don’t use. I had literally never used Apple TV before, hardly knew it was a thing, and yet somehow I was paying for it.
A Quick Note on Credit Scores*
I had a couple of questions about credit scores this week, so I thought I would share an older article, but still a good one, about how FICO scores work.
There are any number of scoring models, lenders report to different credit bureaus at different times, and some creditors don’t report to all three repositories. As a result, there can be differences between the scores you see depending on where and when they are pulled.
This article provides some excellent information on the inner workings of credit scores and the different scorecards. FICO Score Article
Feel free to share it with anyone who has questions about how the system works.
Market Notes
It was a pretty quiet week… and then Friday came along.
We noted last week that the Fed’s annual conference at Jackson Hole would be important for rates, and it certainly was.
Early in the week, the market was relatively stable, with rates moving largely in line with oil prices and generally improving fractionally.
That said, the star of the week was always going to be Fed Chair Warsh’s comments at the end of the week.
Depending on your viewpoint, his comments did not disappoint.
He described the economy as strong and reiterated that the Fed’s 2% inflation target remains firm. That isn’t necessarily new.
However, he also stated that current short-term rates do not appear to be restraining financial conditions. The market interpreted those comments to mean that not only is a short-term rate cut unlikely anytime soon, but the Fed’s next move could potentially be a rate hike.
That pushed yields higher, with mortgage rates ending the week roughly 0.125% higher than last week.
Looking Ahead
This coming week, we will get a fair amount of economic data that should provide some additional guidance, with the star of the week being Friday morning’s non-farm payroll, or jobs, report.
Strong job growth would likely put additional upward pressure on mortgage rates.
Buckle up.
If you have buyers ratifying contracts ahead of Friday’s report, I would encourage them to lock in their terms. And if you have clients looking for another opinion or simply have questions about the market, feel free to have them call.
Cheers!
-Steve-
*All loans are subject to credit approval and program guidelines.