New York, January 10, 2026, 19:57 EST — Market closed.
Century Communities, Inc. shares closed up 10.7% at $68.33 on Friday, their biggest daily rise in months, as housing-linked stocks rallied after President Donald Trump said he was ordering $200 billion in mortgage bond purchases aimed at lowering housing costs. U.S. markets are closed this weekend. (Reuters)
The jump matters because homebuilders swing with mortgage rates, and the policy signal hit just as traders try to pin down the next leg for yields and housing demand. Even small moves in financing costs can change who qualifies, who shops, and who cancels.
Fed officials were less convinced the bond-buy plan will fix what ails affordability. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said housing pressures reflect “a supply and demand issue,” while Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin told reporters “the answer is on the supply side.” UBS analysts estimated $200 billion of mortgage-backed securities — bonds backed by home loans — could trim mortgage rates by about 10 to 25 basis points (a basis point is 0.01 percentage point), potentially taking the 30-year rate to roughly 6.0% from 6.21%. (Reuters)
Still, the trade ran hard on Friday. LoanDepot surged 24% and Rocket Companies gained 6.6%, while homebuilders Lennar and D.R. Horton were up 7.5% and 6%, respectively, Reuters reported. “Every little bit will help push mortgage yields lower,” Annex Wealth Management’s Brian Jacobsen told Reuters, adding it could also lift demand and complicate affordability if prices follow. (Reuters)
Century Communities, based in Colorado, builds and sells homes under the Century Communities and Century Complete brands, targeting a wide range of buyers across multiple U.S. markets. (Century Communities Investors)
The housing backdrop remains uneven. U.S. single-family housing starts rose 5.4% in October to an annual rate of 874,000, but permits — a read on future building — slipped 0.5% to 876,000, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau reported on Friday. (Reuters)
Friday’s policy-driven pop landed inside a broader risk-on session. U.S. stocks hit record highs after the Labor Department reported nonfarm payrolls increased by 50,000 in December versus a 60,000 estimate in a Reuters poll, while the unemployment rate eased to 4.4%. (Reuters)
For traders, the near-term tells will be in the bond market, not the model home. The key is whether the mortgage rate “spread” — the gap between the 30-year mortgage rate and the 10-year Treasury yield — narrows in a sustained way, because that’s what shows up in buyers’ monthly payments.
But the setup has traps. If bond buying pushes demand faster than supply can respond, it can lift home prices and blunt the affordability benefit, and builders can give back the rally just as quickly as they caught it.
Next week brings a clean catalyst: the U.S. Consumer Price Index report for December is due Tuesday, January 13 at 8:30 a.m. ET, with producer prices and import/export prices later in the week — data that can move yields and, by extension, mortgage rates. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Century Communities’ next company-specific event is earnings. The homebuilder is scheduled to report fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results after the market closes on January 28, with a conference call at 5:00 p.m. ET. (Century Communities Investors)
