Business

To much fanfare, mostly out of president Trump, on Thursday the House passed their version of the tax bill 227-205 along party lines, with 13 Republicans opposing. The passage of the House bill was met with muted market reaction. The Senate version of the tax reform is currently going through the Senate Finance Committee for additional amendments and should be ready for a full floor debate in a few weeks.

After five straight weeks higher - read by many as confirmation of how awesome the global coordinated recovery must be - WTI and Brent dropped this week as inventories rose, demand outlooks dimmed, and OPEC hope faded.

As Alhambra Investment Partners' Jeffrey Snider notes, there is a titanic struggle going on right now in the oil market.

Turkish lira plunged near record low 3.9/USD this morning and bond yields spiked over 12.5% for the first time in history as investor anxiety escalated following President Erdogan's attack on the nation's central bank, decrying it's "wrong path."

Currency crisis...

And bond market panic...

A small savings bank in Michigan, Flagstar Bank, has come up with a genius, innovative new mortgage product that they believe is going to be great for their investors and low-income housing buyers: the "zero-down mortgage."  What's better, Flagstar is even offering to pay the closing costs of their low-income future mortgage debtors.  Here's more from HousingWire:

Under the program, Flagstar will gift the required 3% down payment to the borrower, plus up to $3,500 to be used for closing costs.

 

Before the cash equity market opens, we thought these two charts may help...

FX carry is not helping...

And bonds ain't buying it...

Bonus Chart - the yield curve just hit a new cycle low...