New York, Jan 9, 2026, 07:06 EST — Premarket
- FNMA finished Jan. 8 higher by 1.5% at $10.85 in over-the-counter trading
- Trump said he directed $200 billion in mortgage bond buying to help drive rates lower
- FHFA chief says Trump may make a call within “a month or two” on carving out an IPO portion for Fannie-Freddie
Fannie Mae shares drew extra attention ahead of Friday’s session after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was ordering $200 billion of mortgage bond purchases intended to push mortgage rates lower. The stock finished Thursday up 1.5% at $10.85, as U.S. stock index futures stayed muted going into the December jobs report. (MarketWatch)
That’s important since Federal National Mortgage Association stock — a thinly traded over-the-counter name — has for years tended to swing more on policy chatter than on routine business fundamentals. The company has been in federal conservatorship since 2008, so any shift in ownership or capital structure still runs through Washington. (Fannie Mae)
Interest rates remain the pinch point. Freddie Mac’s weekly survey pegged the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 6.16% as of Jan. 8, leaving borrowing costs elevated for many buyers even with the recent pullback from last year’s peaks. (Freddie Mac)
In a Truth Social post, Trump said he was directing his representatives to purchase mortgage-backed securities — bonds backed by pools of home loans — with the goal of lowering monthly payments. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would carry out the purchase but wouldn’t offer a timeline, and he said the firms had “ample liquidity” when assets beyond cash are included; Reuters reported their combined cash and cash equivalents were under $17 billion as of Sept. 30. Redfin’s head of economics research, Chen Zhao, said $200 billion would probably have a “fairly small impact” on rates, putting it at 10 to 15 basis points — hundredths of a percentage point. (Reuters)
In a separate comment, Pulte told CNBC he thinks Trump will decide within the next month or two whether to sell a stake in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac via an initial public offering. “It is entirely up to the president,” Pulte said. (Reuters)
On Thursday, Fannie Mae pointed to its own capital-markets plans, releasing a 2026 schedule for Connecticut Avenue Securities, or CAS — the credit-risk transfer deals that offload some mortgage default risk to private investors. It said it’s targeting roughly $4 billion of CAS in 5 to 7 transactions, with possible issuance windows stretching from January/February to November/December. (Fannie Mae)
The mortgage-bond news didn’t stop with the agencies. Opendoor and Rocket Companies popped in premarket trading, Barron’s reported, with investors betting that lower mortgage rates could spur housing demand and a pickup in refinancing.
Even so, traders are still missing the specifics that tend to drive rates — the schedule, price targets, and whether it goes beyond the $200 billion figure. Financial Times quoted experts saying the effect might be limited, and pointed out that prior declines in mortgage rates didn’t lead to much of a rebound in housing demand. (Financial Times)
On deck: the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report at 8:30 a.m. ET, a release that could swing Treasury yields and mortgage-rate expectations higher or lower. Investors are also scanning for any momentum on housing policy tied to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, set for Jan. 19–23. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
