Chris McDonald's (chrismcdonald) Blog

Here come the 2010 forecasts... Mortgages rates, which hit an all-time low about a month ago, are slated to rise to six percent by the end of 2010, according to the deputy chief economist at mortgage financier Freddie Mac. Amy Crew Cutts told the Washington Post mortgage rates could climb about ...

Investors are heading toward the final month of the year with more questions about the economy than they had just a few weeks ago. The uncertainty, which follows some downbeat reports on housing and employment, will likely mean choppy trading, especially as volume dwindles during the holiday sea...

   Bond prices rose today, sending 30-year bonds up a point, after data showed signs of weakness in underlying retail sales and regional manufacturing.     U.S. retail sales rose a brisk 1.4% last month but were much less impressive once autos were stripped out, while September's data was revise...

   Monday we saw the equity markets rally nicely, and in addition many investors had intra-day price improvements. Helping the interest rate markets was a record $40 billion 3-yr Treasury auction that went well. The 3-year note auction gave investors a yield of 1.435%, with a bid/cover ratio of 3...

  Government debt prices declined Wednesday following the Treasury's announcement of a record quarterly refunding and ahead of the Federal Reserve's latest statement on monetary policy.--The government plans to auction a record $81 billion of debt next week to refund $38.5 billion of securities t...

Wednesday's bond market has opened in negative territory again after this morning's economic data gave us stronger than expected results and yesterday's after-hours earnings release from tech giant Intel has helped boost stock prices during early trading. The Dow is currently up 27 points while t...

Wall Street ended a tumultuous two-week run relatively quietly Friday, finishing another back-and-forth session mixed as investors were cheered by signs of easing in the credit markets and managed to absorb lackluster economic news with equanimity. But while there was less volatility than during ...

Will "Whoo-hoo WaMu," the no-frills, no-fees, hip and neighborly bank, find a new identity with conservative JPMorgan Chase, which advertises value and security?  WaMu's ads have mocked stodgy banking and portrayed customers in fantasies about financial freedom. Chase's brand is less distinguisha...

Tuesday's bond market has opened in positive despite stronger than expected inflation news. The stock markets are showing significant losses with the Dow down 179 points and the Nasdaq down 30 points. The bond market is currently up 8/32, which should improve this morning's mortgage rates by app...