Phil Grossfield's Blog

Stress Is Not The Problem. Does stress make you sick?  You’ve heard this before, right?  That stress can affect you not just emotionally, but physically too. And, I believe it. But it turns out that stress is actually not bad for you. However, stressing out about stress being stressful is! Huh?  Yep, normal anxiety about life is, well, normal, and actually beneficial. But if you stress out about being stressed…that my friends is the real culprit.  Read more about it here:  A Whole New Way To Think About Stress.

Cornbread Update: On Friday I have to feed cornbread to 30 people at my BFF’s BBQ Cook-Off. So far I’ve made one cornbread recipe I found on the Internet and it was great. It’s made in an iron skillet and then baked…very good with Honey-Butter. Now I’m gonna try a jalapeno recipe.

My Market Watch:  Bonds Up – Pricing Same So Far…. The Fannie Mae 30-Year Bond is a direct indicator of rates/pricing…if bonds are being bought then rates improve and if sold off rates worsen. Although the bond is up +19bps from Friday’s close, rates/pricing are the same. That’s why I think we’ll issue a mid-day price improvement, unless something drastically reverses the current movement.

Interestingly, NAMB reported the housing index, which measures Builder sentiment, dropped more this month than in its 8-year history. According to MBS Highway, builders blamed nasty weather and a shortage of lots and labor. I thought this report might negatively influence traders when looking at bonds, but bonds are still being bought this morning so no sweat, eh?