The first week of August was volatile for MBS prices as investors tried to make sense of the new job numbers and whether the “flight to quality” of U.S. Treasuries and MBS would continue unabated. “The market was very reactionary even to minor news this week,” said Joe Farr, director of sales and marketing for MBS Quoteline. As Inside MBS & ABS went to press, the bid price on the benchmark Fannie Mae 3.50 percent bond was in the neighborhood of 103.43 ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reduced their retained mortgage portfolios by a combined $44.4 billion during the second quarter, a period during which the government-sponsored enterprises posted substantial increases in net earnings. Freddie Mac’s non-agency MBS holdings declined 11.6 percent, while its un-securitized whole-loan portfolio dropped 3.0 percent. The GSE sold $3.3 billion of non-agency MBS and securitized $2.1 billion of single-family ... [Includes one data chart]

The open market trading desk at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has announced plans to streamline the administration of agency MBS held in the Federal Reserve’s System Open Market Account (SOMA). As one of the central bank’s monetary policy tools, the SOMA assists the New York Fed in carrying out open market operations, which acquire the assets that serve as collateral for circulating U.S. currency, a tool for managing reserve balances and ...

Freddie Mac guaranteed its first multifamily small balance loan securitization this week as part of its effort to better serve less populated markets and smaller apartment communities. The government-sponsored enterprise plans to guarantee approximately $108 million in this first series of SB Certificates. This is a new credit risk transfer comprised of multifamily MBS backed by small balance loans underwritten by Freddie and issued by a third-party trust. In these SB deals, Freddie is ...

The brunt of the new revenue also looks as though it will be collected from mortgage borrowers.

The new jumbo deal from Shellpoint includes originations from New Penn along with contributions from 30 other lenders.

Two Harbors Investment is ramping up its conduit activity with plans to increase issuance of jumbo mortgage-backed securities and a new non-qualified-mortgage offering. The real estate investment trust is on track to issue its fifth jumbo MBS of the year this month. Bill Roth, Two Harbors’ CIO, said the REIT could issue as many as 10 jumbo MBS this year. He said that as of the end of June, the REIT’s pipeline for jumbo acquisitions was approximately $1.3 billion ...

Redwood Trust this week reduced the amount of jumbo-mortgage volume the real estate investment trust expects to acquire this year, citing competition for originations, among other issues. At the beginning of the year, officials at Redwood projected that the REIT would purchase $7.0 billion in jumbos. Through the end of July, Redwood had purchased $3.0 billion in jumbos. Officials at Redwood said the REIT is on track to purchase $5.5 billion to $7.0 billion in jumbos ...

Two of the most prolific issuers of jumbo mortgage-backed securities this year have offered investors some variety with their latest deals. JPMorgan Chase stocked its deal with older loans while Two Harbors Investment has focused on fresh originations. Last week, Chase issued JPMorgan Mortgage Trust 2015-5. The $489.64 million deal was backed by loans with a weighted average loan age of 28.9 months, according to Kroll Bond Rating Agency. The MBS ...

Nearly two years after facing difficulty selling a jumbo mortgage-backed security, Shellpoint Partners is preparing to issue a new deal. The $269.29 million Shellpoint Co-Originator Trust 2015-1 is set to receive AAA ratings with credit enhancement of 8.30 percent on the senior tranche, according to a presale report from DBRS. The deal includes originations from Shellpoint’s New Penn Financial along with contributions from 30 other lenders. Shellpoint issued its first jumbo MBS ...