February 26th, 2026 8:35 AM by Richard Sardella MLO.100007700/NMLS 233568
Key economic data this week have been sparse, today though we got weekly jobless claims. Expected at 215K from the revised 208K of the previous week, claims increased by 4k to 212K. Continuing claims, which serve as a proxy for outstanding unemployment, fell by 31,000 to 1,833,000 in the previous week, among the lowest readings in the last 10 months. The report shows what traders are expecting, low hirings and low firings. If employment holds steady it will keep the Fed from lowering the FF rate.
A third round of talks between the US and Iran kicked off today in Geneva. If the US were to levy military action there will be a rush to safety in US treasuries, in the meantime markets will watch closely.
The only thing left on the calendar today, the Treasury will auction $44B of 7 year notes at 1 pm. Recent Treasury buying has not been aggressive with most terms seeing weak demand and foreign buying slowing.
There are more countries off-loading US debt as the dollar weakens and debt servicing becomes more an issue, most of the selling coming from countries that are not linked close to the US. Allies bought $463.9B of Treasuries in 2025, the biggest annual net purchase since at least 2016, according to Bloomberg’s analysis of US Treasury data. Non-aligned countries sold $673B of Treasuries between 2016 and 2025.
PRICES @ 10:00 AM
10 year note: 4.02% -3 bp
5 year note: 3.59% -2 bp
2 year note: 3.46% -2 bp
30 year bond: 4.67% -3 bp
30 year FNMA 5.0: @9:30 am 100.34 +6 bp (+6 bp from 9:30 am yesterday)
30 year FNMA 5.5: @9:30 am 101.55 +1 bp (+3 bp from 9:30 am yesterday)
30 year GNMA 5.0: @9:30 am 100.28 +6 bp (+6 bp from 9:30 am yesterday)
Dollar/Yen: 155.94 -0.44 yen
Dollar/Euro: $1.1810 unch
Dollar Index: 97.68 -0.02
Gold: $5,184.80 -$41.40
Bitcoin: 67,916 -1277
Crude Oil: $64.24 -$ 1.18 (OPEC talking about increasing output)
DJIA: 49,622 +140
NASDAQ: 22,974 -178
S&P 500: 6922 -24
Richard Sardella has been actively managing and providing services in the mortgage industry for over 30 years. Richard serves on the board of directors as President of Colorado Home Mortgages Inc.
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MLO of record MLO.100007700 / NMLS#233568 / CHM NMLS#127716.