US mortgage rates top 7% for first time in 20 months

AI desk brief

US mortgage rates have moved back above 7% for the first time in 20 months as Treasury yields climb and the market prices in another Fed hike, with the 10-year yield hitting its highest since July 2007 and the 30-year Treasury yield at a 2004 peak. Freddie Mac’s 30-year mortgage rate was also trending up after the Fed’s September quarter-point hike to 3.75%-4.00%, underscoring the persistence of restrictive rates across the curve.

The backdrop is broadly bearish for precious metals near term: higher nominal yields and firmer inflation/energy prices after the US-Israel war with Iran have lifted borrowing costs and kept pressure on risk assets. Brent briefly topped $105, reinforcing the inflation impulse that could keep the Fed hawkish and support the dollar/real-rate headwind for gold and silver.