Good Tuesday morning from your Hometown lender,

Bonds treading water on what should be a quiet day.

Reprice risk is low, the current vibe is that bonds will hold steady for a while until something happens to upset the balance. That something sure isn’t on today’s calendar, which has no events that should cause any movement in mortgage bonds or rates. There isn’t a lot of urgency to lock this morning, however floating doesn’t really have that much appeal either.

The only “market moving” event this week will be Fed Chair Jerome Powell speech on Friday at the Jackson Hole Symposium, where he set the stage a year ago for a half-point Fed rate cut at the September 2024 meeting. This time around he may be much slower to commit, with the economy giving mixed signals between inflation and the labor market. Markets are already pricing in a September quarter-point cut and two cuts on the year but have lost conviction on that since last week’s inflation data. If Powell says something that casts more doubt on a September cut, rate sheet pricing will worsen as markets give up hope. Right now, it would be a surprise to hear Powell say anything other than a cut is on the table, but the decision will be data dependent..

If you are wondering what’s next for Ai and robotics…

Over the weekend more than 500 humanoid robots took part in the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, competing in sporting events, but also real-world tasks such as delivering luggage. We are not there yet but it is coming soon. How much consumption will there be when people are working 50% less?

And I took 5 minutes to watch the below video. It is worth it. If you don’t know or use Agent mode.. it is a game changer.

From Overwhelmed To Overpowered: Agent Mode For Realtors & Lenders