Federal officials are preparing to reduce the maximum size of home-mortgage loans eligible for backing by Fannie Mae FNMA and Freddie Mac ... Currently, Fannie and Freddie Mac can back mortgages that have balances as high as $417,000 in most parts of the country and up to $625,500 in expensive housing markets, including parts of California and New York, and as much as $721,050 in Hawaii. Mortgages within the limits are called "conforming" loans; mortgages that exceed them are called "jumbo" mortgages.Monday:
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie, hasn't announced how far it will drop the loan limits, which would take effect Jan. 1, 2014, and a spokeswoman declined to elaborate on specifics. But in a statement, the agency said a "gradual reduction in loan limits is an appropriate and effective approach to reducing taxpayers' mortgage-risk exposure…and expanding the role of private capital in mortgage finance."
• 3:00 PM, Consumer Credit for July from the Federal Reserve. The consensus is for credit to increase $12.3 billion in July.
Weekend:
• Schedule for Week of September 8th
The Nikkei is up about 2.4%.
From CNBC: Pre-Market Data and Bloomberg futures: the S&P futures are up slightly and DOW futures are up 12 (fair value).
Oil prices are up recently with the Syria situation. WTI futures are at $109.96 per barrel and Brent at $115.75 per barrel. This will probably push up gasoline prices soon. See Hamilton's Syria and the world oil market
Below is a graph from Gasbuddy.com for nationwide gasoline prices. If you click on "show crude oil prices", the graph displays oil prices for WTI, not Brent; gasoline prices in most of the U.S. are impacted more by Brent prices.
| Orange County Historical Gas Price Charts Provided by GasBuddy.com |
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