At June 30, the REIT held non-qualified mortgages of roughly $1.24 billion...

The Federal Reserve giveth and taketh away in the agency MBS market. And now that the central bank’s investment activity is significantly curtailed, investors are seeing some opportunities in the sector.

Two prominent non-QM lenders failed in recent months amid volatility in the market. Non-agency aggregators suggest that the issues were lender-specific and the market is improving.

With limited demand for refinancing, lenders are peddling other products. While nonbanks are offering home-equity loans, some lenders are selling mortgages with a reduced-fee refi option down the road.

The REIT’s investments in MSRs increased by 20.2% in the second quarter, based on unpaid principal balance, to $109.0 billion as of the end of June. Annaly sees the assets as a nice hedge to its traditional investments in agency MBS.

When a company right-sizes operations, how many employees lose their job?; margins improve in the second quarter; applications for refis increase.

Income from MSR markups declined and origination units took losses in the second quarter.

Declining originations and margin cut into mortgage-related earnings at 24 key lenders.

The bulk of PennyMac's income in the second quarter of 2022 was tied to servicing.

The REIT paid a $325 million fee to an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group to shift to internal management.