New York, Jan 11, 2026, 21:03 EST — Market closed
- Builders FirstSource (BLDR) closed Friday up about 12% at $124.66
- Housing-linked stocks rallied after Trump ordered $200 billion in mortgage-bond purchases
- Tuesday’s U.S. CPI report is the next big test for rates and the housing tape
Builders FirstSource Inc (BLDR) shares closed up about 12% on Friday, snapping the stock back into the center of the rate-sensitive housing trade. The stock ended at $124.66, up $13.37 from Thursday’s close. (Nasdaq)
The company sells structural building products and components to homebuilders and remodelers, a business that can speed up or stall with mortgage rates. Builders FirstSource calls itself the nation’s largest supplier of structural building products and value‑added components for residential construction and repair work. (Bldr)
Now it’s a timing game. Investors will be watching whether cheaper mortgages turn into more orders, not just a one-day squeeze.
President Donald Trump ordered $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities purchases — bonds backed by home loans — in a bid to push down mortgage rates; Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will execute the buying. Analysts at TD Cowen said the move could narrow the gap between the 30-year mortgage and the 10-year Treasury, which lenders watch when setting rates. “Every little bit will help,” Annex Wealth Management’s Brian Jacobsen told Reuters, while warning that stimulating demand does not fix housing supply. (Reuters)
Mortgage spreads — the extra yield lenders demand over Treasuries — tightened by more than 20 basis points overnight, HousingWire’s Logan Mohtashami wrote, helping push 30-year rates below 6% even as the 10-year yield moved little. He said spreads have been abnormally wide in recent years, and a shift back toward “normal” levels can pull mortgage rates down without a big bond rally. (HousingWire)
Redfin said the daily average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 5.99% on Jan. 9 from 6.21% a day earlier, the lowest level in nearly three years. “This may be near the lowest” mortgage rates fall for the foreseeable future, Redfin economics head Chen Zhao said. (Redfin)
Housing data released the same day were mixed. The Census Bureau said October housing starts ran at a 1.246 million-unit seasonally adjusted annual rate, down 4.6% from September, while single-family starts rose 5.4% to 874,000; permits slipped 0.2% to 1.412 million. (Census)
The Friday move was broad across housing and building-products names. Boise Cascade rose about 6%, TopBuild gained about 6%, and D.R. Horton added nearly 8%, based on market data.
Rate hopes also leaned on a softer jobs report: U.S. payrolls rose 50,000 in December and the unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%, Reuters reported. Fitch Ratings’ Olu Sonola said job growth was “stuck in stall speed,” even as the unemployment rate should cool the Fed’s urgency to respond to weakening labor data. (Reuters)
But the setup is fragile. If inflation surprises on the upside and pushes Treasury yields higher, mortgage rates could rebound quickly and take the air out of Friday’s rally; and Trump’s bond-buying plan still has execution and political risk written all over it.
Monday’s open will show whether Builders FirstSource can hold the gains once the headline trade meets fresh positioning.
The next hard timestamp is Tuesday’s U.S. consumer price index report for December, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, a release that often swings bond yields — and, by extension, housing-linked stocks like BLDR. (Bls)
