NEW YORK, Jan 9, 2026, 07:57 (EST) — Premarket
Main takeaways:
- Opendoor shares jumped 8.4% in premarket trading after Trump laid out a $200 billion mortgage bond purchase plan. (Barron’s)
- The White House effort is intended to bring mortgage rates lower — a key swing factor for housing demand and transaction volumes. (Financial Times)
- Traders have their eyes on the 8:30 a.m. ET U.S. jobs report for hints on where rates may head, while also waiting on any timing updates from housing officials about the bond buys. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Opendoor Technologies Inc shares rose 8.4% in premarket trading on Friday, building on a steep late-week surge in rate-sensitive housing names after President Donald Trump pointed to a $200 billion mortgage-bond purchase plan. (Barron’s)
The timing is important because Opendoor’s core model — purchasing homes and then flipping them — depends a lot on mortgage rates and how often houses change hands. Even a small policy move that eases borrowing costs can swing mood fast in the market’s most interest-rate sensitive pockets. (Financial Times)
Trump said he had instructed his representatives to purchase $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities — bonds created from bundles of home loans — and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would execute it. Pulte said officials were “not disclosing” the details or the timeline. Chen Zhao, Redfin’s head of economics research, said the move could shave mortgage rates by roughly 10 to 15 basis points — a basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point — and added that demand has scarcely improved even with rates slipping into the low 6% range. (Reuters)
The policy cue comes on the heels of a fresh housing shock earlier this week, when Trump said his administration was moving to ban large institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes. The idea shook landlord and housing stocks and had investors trying to figure out what actions he could actually take. (Reuters)
Opendoor’s been on a roller coaster lately: shares dropped 11.7% on Jan. 7, then bounced 5.1% to finish Thursday at $6.43, after ranging from a $6.02 low to a $6.72 high across the past two sessions, according to Nasdaq data.
Opendoor climbed in late-Thursday extended trading to around $7.21, nudging the stock back toward the $7 mark that many traders view as a psychological threshold, MarketWatch data showed.
Mortgage bonds climbed and home-lender shares jumped following Trump’s remarks, bringing the wider housing chain — lenders, brokers and home sellers — back into focus going into Friday’s open. (Bloomberg)
On deck is the U.S. Labor Department’s employment report for December, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, and it could quickly reshape rate expectations right before the opening bell. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Opendoor bulls face a real downside if the bond-buying plan shows up as a splashy headline but lacks a clear mechanism, or if it nudges rates down only slightly while affordability and supply limits still keep buyers out. And if transaction volumes remain light, the company’s model — holding homes on its balance sheet while it tries to resell — can get hit quickly the moment prices start to wobble.
Outside of the jobs report, investors will keep an eye out for any FHFA specifics on when purchases might happen and how big they could be, along with Opendoor’s next earnings update, which Nasdaq data lists as expected on Feb. 26.
