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GCA Forums News for Wednesday September 24 2025
GCA Forums News for Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Markets Snapshot
- Dow Jones Industrial Average 46,140 (-0.3% from opening).
- S&P 500 6,645 (-0.4%)
- Nasdaq 22,485 (-0.4%).
Traders reacted to Fed Chair Powell’s remark on “highly valued” equities, especially in tech.
- U.S. 10-year Treasury yield 4.16% (higher for message, meaning fresh selling).
Commodities:
- Gold: $3,752.90 per troy ounce
- Silver: $44.20 per troy ounce
- Mortgage rates (avg 30-yr fixed): 6.26% (Freddie Mac’s weekly reading
- MND daily shows 6.27%.
Breaking Housing & Mortgage News
- New-home sales surged 20.5% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 800,000, the strongest pace in three years, driven by builder incentives and a slight dip in borrowing costs.
- MBA mortgage applications rose 0.6% in the week ending Sept. 19.
- Within that, refinancing requests climbed 1% and sit 42% above the same week last year.
- Housing Inventory: As of July, NAR reports a 4.6-month supply, showing a gradual return to balance in the market.
- Housing Outlook: Fannie Mae now forecasts 30-year mortgage rates at 6.4% by late 2025 and 5.9% by late 2026, along with expected sales growth next year.
Economy at a Glance
- Inflation: The Consumer Price Index rose 0.2% month-over-month in August and is up 2.5% year-over-year.
- The core index is up 2.9%.
- Economic Growth: The latest reading on real GDP for Q2 (second estimate) shows a 1.6% annualized increase.
- Labor Market: Initial jobless claims totaled 231,000 in the week of Sept. 13, down from a recent spike.
- Benchmarking by the BLS indicated that about 911,000 fewer jobs existed from March 2024 through March 2025 compared to prior estimates.
Fed Watch: Powell, Policy, and Personnel
- Monetary Policy Update: The Fed Open Market Committee (FOMC) is not announcing any rate decision at its meeting, with the next date set for Nov. 5-6.
- It recently cut the policy rate by 25 basis points to a target range of 4.00-4.25%.
- Speculation on Powell’s Future: The White House is reportedly considering possible successors to the chair as Treasury Secretary Yellen and other senior officials discuss the matter.
- Scott Bessent reports that interviews will kick off early next week.
- The market is still mulling over the possible fallout of Powell’s possible departure; for example, the President hasn’t fired him yet.
- Fed HQ Work: Powell faced the administration over the budget costs.
- He answered, no signs of wrongdoing were pointed to.
- Gov. Cook Matter: The White House tried to remove Cook from the Board, saying she miscalculated her mortgage occupancy.
- The judge said the White House lacked the right grounds, and now the high court is looking at it.
- An AP-sourced set of files backs up her version of a home that is a second/vacation.
Chicago & Illinois, Snapshot Updates
- Chicago: City officials want to raise a higher corporate head tax and use other fees and tax shifts to fill a budget hole.
- Execs say the move could scare off jobs and growth.
- Illinois: Gov. J.B. Pritzker is promoting a new energy package called FEJA 2.0.
- Utilities are warning about possible rising costs as talks continue.
Investigations and Claims: Verified vs. Unverified
New York Attorney General Letitia James
- We see no reliable reports about “mortgage fraud charges.”
- Instead, she is defending herself against lawsuits that try to dismiss her office’s investigations.
- One “insurance violation” charge against Trump’s organization was dismissed in a separate case last spring.
- Essentially, no charges against James.
Senator Adam Schiff (California)
- Critics have claimed Schiff is tied up in a real estate and mortgage ethics issue and are demanding documents.
- No criminal charges have been filed.
- Treat this as a claim in a political dispute, not a proven fact.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (CA)
- Question Raised: How can a public servant afford two multi-million-dollar homes?
- Public records and earlier articles show notable income beyond salary (like business investments; a 2020 LA Times report estimated $1.7M in income and large asset values).
- This context—not salary alone—clarifies his buying power.
- No proven fraud report exists today.
“DNI Tulsi Gabbard” & “Russian Collusion Masterminds”
- Tulsi Gabbard now serves as DNI and has canceled clearances over alleged past behavior for former officials.
- No formal treason charges have been filed today against any of the names circulating online.
Ghislaine Maxwell / “Epstein list”
- Maxwell’s attorneys have offered to testify in limited circumstances, yet the DOJ/FBI claim no official “client list” exists and will not publish more records.
- The House Oversight Committee has posted tens of thousands of documents.
- Discussions continue, but a definitive “list” has not been produced per the DOJ.
Pam Bondi / FBI Director Kash Patel / Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino
- The administration’s July memo concluded no “client list” exists.
- A conclusion now serves as official DOJ policy, despite political pushback.
- Bottom Line: When formal charges or official actions exist, they’re cited above.
- When items are labeled as claims—meaning they haven’t been charged or reviewed—we tag them as unverified.
- This keeps us from spreading possible misinformation.
Business Update: Bankruptcy & Job Cuts
- Omnicare, a unit of CVS, just went into Chapter 11 after facing a hefty $949 million jury award.
- The firm expects to keep operating while reorganizing.
- Job Cuts: The tech sector is still trimming payrolls as 2025 rolls on.
- Recent counts show multiple layoffs affecting tens of thousands.
- Fresh data expected later this week.
Musk, Trump, and the Possible New Party
- Elon Musk is in the headlines again, hinting at a new “American Party” since July.
- He talks about collaborating with the White House.
- However, there’s noticeable tension—the “One Big Beautiful Bill” symbolizes the faction line.
- Musk can’t run due to residency laws, so there’s no official candidacy, but party structures are taking shape.
Coming Events to Monitor
- Federal Reserve signals: Powell and other board members are expected to speak this week, guiding markets before the PCE inflation release.
- The note is that rate changes will still be gentle. There is no jump to a 3-point drop right now.
- Housing Data: The existing-home sales figure arrives Thursday.
- Forecasts are leaning soft, even with the surge in new construction.
- Watch inventory for deeper insight.
- If you’d like a lender-oriented, one-page daily brief that puts these indicators into your GCA dashboards, say the word.
See What’s Moving in Investors and Homebuyers’ Minds
- Lenders have cut mortgage rates again—another small average dip means optimism in the air.
- Homebuyers damaged repair files this time, so apps for loans bumped higher.
- You can read about the uptick and the driving factors in the original article.
- For more existing-market stories, continue to the Mortgage Applications.
- Existing-home sales still struggle to get traction.
- The latest snapshot shows low supply, high equity, and millions of stubborn sheltering inside no-appraisal mortgage loans.
- The balance between buyers on the sidelines and wallets still holding rate-lock hazards continues.
An echo from the housing front surfaced in short GSE comments. Fannie Mae’s housing forecast stated loans are near six percent for the forward trajectory at the end of the second full quarter of next year. At about the same time, news from a verified intel source claims that the White House is calling on agencies to rein in allocations. An internal communiqué cited vaguer guidelines, but quarters are buying out indicators in rides and ministries.
- The Justice Department found no formal “client list” in the Epstein case, so no further action will be taken.
- The press release, however, still stirred public interest, given Epstein’s reputation for hanging with powerful figures.
- Missing documents or “client lists” in black-and-white often attract rumors in the worst way.
- The matter, for now, is labeled settled.
- Omnicare, a CVS subsidiary, uses the courts to gain a breathing space from $949 million in debt.
- The pharmacy chain, focused on nursing-home patients, is the latest domino to fall under the wider debt challenges facing health care and long-term care industries.
- CVS pointed to pandemic-related staffing shortages and the overheated labor market as key culprits in the filing.
- The Tech Crunch article lists layoffs from the 2025 season, showing an ongoing “right-sizing” culture.
- By June, enterprises had swapped 12 percent of the workforce, about 150,000 fewer jobs since January.
- The layoffs are selective but are now occurring in HR, accounting, and, of course, R&D.
- Elon Musk confirmed the launch of a new political movement tentatively called the “America Party.”
- According to the press release, the goal is to attract center-leaning constituents by running in 2024 but separating from the Trump wing, which it sees as too volatile.
- Fannie Mae expects sluggish housing investments in 2025, predicting GDP growth of just 1 percent or so during the year, absent bigger fiscal measures.
- The mortgage body advised lenders to lower expectations on home prices, as potential buyers are still caught with 2, 3, or 5 percent-old loans and unwilling to move after the Fed began lowering the key rate.
- The latest existing home sales figures land this Thursday, and experts urge restraint on any celebration.
- Mortgage rates are at a record 8 percent, and new construction is also creeping upwards, reducing the sales of pre-owned houses.
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