Thursday’s macro data looked like a Rorschach test for economists—everyone saw what they wanted and yields went nowhere. The real action comes Friday morning, with Canadian GDP and U.S. PCE inflation.

Wednesday featured no major macro drivers. That gave traders extra time to watch the White House try to muscle the Fed, like a backseat driver grabbing the wheel and insisting they know the shortcut.

U.S. bonds staged a rally Tuesday, and some of that momentum drifted north, dragging down our 5-year yield by 2 bps. (Bond prices and yields move inversely.)

For now, Canadas remain adrift at sea, awaiting trade or inflation clarity. Until our 5-year bond (now 2.96%) closes above 3.04% or below 2.90% (August's range), the daily 2-5 bps zig-zags we've been seeing are mostly noise.

Episode #2 of Stress Test This stars the man working to make Pine a household name in mortgages: CEO and Co-founder Justin Herlick.

As you're about to see, Pine does a lot of things right. Its method is part stopwatch, part spreadsheet: time and measure everything, take every wasted second out of the origination process, chop funding costs, and grow its net promoter score—which Herlick says maximizes word-of-mouth and lowers Pine's customer acquisition costs.

Pine is no tech slouch, but its people matter just as much as its automation. The company has low agent attrition because it does all the client chasing ("top of funnel work") for its reps, delivers ultra-low rates and fair compensation based on customer satisfaction.

We also dig into how Pine is leveraging AI, how it uses AI coding tools, how it scores agents in real-time, its philosophy on AI search, how it manages back-end funders, and where Herlick sees broker market share in 2035.

For mortgage pros allergic to marathon interviews, this one’s a quick shot of competitive insight—practical takeaways from an industry leader in our signature 9.9 minutes. Enjoy...

Yields yo-yoed on Monday after Friday's apparent Fed easing bias met skepticism. Here’s where the day's headlines drove yields:

There's really no good reason why mortgage brokers should still be texting or emailing lenders to confirm guidelines, rates or deal status. It's the modern equivalent of sending a letter to a movie theatre to ask for showtimes.

A bot can dish out the same info in seconds, trimming staffing costs and elevating broker and client satisfaction.

That brings us to the puzzle of the day: why do almost no lenders offer such an invaluable tool to their broker partners? The tech to make this possible has been around for years, even before ChatGPT's November 30, 2022 public launch.

While most large lenders are snoozing on this technology, upstart Wiseday is making it happen.

Rate markets ended last week with just enough hope to annoy the pessimists.

The optimism came from Chair Powell, who hinted that America's wobbling job market and "restrictive" rates "may warrant" Fed easing. That's despite "upside" inflation risk.

His remarks sent U.S. rates skidding downhill, dragging Canadian yields down a few notches in the process.

The question is whether any of this actually shifts the math for Canadian mortgage shoppers. Let's unpack it.

Rate markets ended last week with just enough hope to annoy the pessimists.

The optimism came from Chair Powell, who hinted that America's wobbling job market and "restrictive" rates "may warrant" Fed easing. That's despite "upside" inflation risk.

His remarks sent U.S. rates skidding downhill, dragging Canadian yields down a few notches in the process.

The question is whether any of this actually shifts the math for Canadian mortgage shoppers. Let's unpack it.