Phil Grossfield's Blog

The producers are blowing it. My favorite contestant, Amber Holcomb, was eliminated last night and I blame the producers. The contestants at this point are all awesome but their performances on Wednesday were lacking…it’s the producers/directors fault. Simply put, the singers are over-worked, over-tired, and way over-sung. The demand on these girls is relentless. This strategy of pushing them to their limit is resulting in poor performances. It’s a singing show! We want the contestants to be at their best…that’s what’s fun…the awesome singing! Isn’t there enough pressure to sing in front of a huge studio audience and millions of people on T.V.? But Nooooooooooo, the producers feel the girls should have to learn additional singing and dancing routines on top of their regular performances, and, attend a million press events and activities. Moreover, the theme on Wednesday was a hit song from 2013…these girls haven’t been listening to the radio for months…how are they supposed to learn and connect to a song they barely know? They can’t…when she is concentrating on remembering the lyrics to a song that means nothing to her, the voice and overall performance is going to suck…case in point for all the girls on Wednesday. It’s killing the show. Still, all that said, the 3 remaining girls are fantastic and if they get enough rest, and don’t have to learn a million things for the finale, the conclusion will be entertaining. As for Amber, I’m a part of her audience now…I’ll buy the first album she puts out. This was arguably a flawless performance.

My Market Watch:  Pricing is worse by 0.125-0.375 just as I predicted yesterday. The Jobs Report indicated over 165,000 new jobs when only 150,000 were expected. Since more new jobs were created than expected, traders deduced the economy is doing well and therefore pulled money out of bonds to invest in stocks instead. When bonds are sold off like this its price worsens and this directly and negatively affects our rates/pricing. If you needed to lock a loan I hope you did it yesterday as I advised. The bond market has stabilized for now and this is a very good thing. As it stands, the bond is resting on 2 important floors of support…we do not want to see the bond sell off anymore and drop below these floors. If it does, then the next floor down is another -30bps. If you have no idea what I’m typing about, check out my post on The Glass Elevator Analogy. Let me know if you would like to discuss.

My Schedule:  I have a meeting at 11a this morning and another at 1:30-2:30p…calls and emails will be returned in-between and after. Please note, I rarely answer my phone before 10:30a as I use this time to catch up on the previous day’s business and prepare the remainder of the day….

Walk With Me For A Cure for Cystic Fibrosis. Our family is walking again this year to find a cure for CF, a life-limiting illness. We walk for our friends pictured, Ashton (age 11) and Lola (age 7). The average life expectancy of someone with CF is 37…let’s change that! Click here to donate or join me and walk with my family on May 19th…email me for details. Every penny helps find a cure. THANKS!