More On Why We Like Financials Right Here

On March 13th we devoted our weekly message to why we like financials right here. Sharing our view of a given sector's prospects serves to accomplish two aims: One, it helps clients understand what they see us doing within their portfolios and, two, it can offer some insight into general economic conditions -- as each sector's prospects are largely dependent upon the macro setup.

Here's a snippet from Bloomberg Intelligence banking specialist's latest on the state of the mortgage market:

(Bloomberg Intelligence) -- Income is the core driver of housing and mortgage demand, and demographics may spark growth. A lower homeownership rate, healthy loan-to-value ratios and tight credit over the past decade support a growth opportunity for mortgages, while credit costs should remain low. Higher employment lessens loan problems and losses, as do rising home prices, which also encourage housing turnover. Those factors, along with rates under 5%, should help purchase volume in 2018.

JPMorgan, Bank of America, U.S. Bancorp and Citigroup are among the largest U.S. mortgage originators. Wells Fargo, JPMorgan and BofA are the largest servicers and lenders. M&T Bank, Wells Fargo, SunTrust, U.S. Bancorp, Fifth Third and BB&T earned relatively more than peers from mortgage banking. (03/28/18)