NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 13:13 ET — Regular session
- Rocket Companies shares fell about 3% in early afternoon trade, reversing part of Tuesday’s jump.
- U.S. mortgage rates slid to a 2025 low, a key swing factor for mortgage lenders heading into 2026.
- A recent SEC filing showed a Rocket director sold shares under a pre-arranged trading plan.
Rocket Companies Inc shares were down 3.2% at $19.41 in early afternoon trading on Wednesday, after touching $20.19 earlier in the session. The stock has traded between $19.41 and $20.19, while the broader market was modestly lower.
The move matters because Rocket’s business is tightly linked to mortgage rates: lower rates can revive refinancing and boost home-loan demand, while higher rates tend to choke off volume. The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.15% this week, its lowest level in 2025, Freddie Mac said.
“After starting the year close to 7%, the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage moved to its lowest level in 2025 this week,” Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sam Khater said. Investing.com Canada
Rocket’s shares had climbed 3.6% on Tuesday to close at $20.06, outperforming a weak broader tape and snapping a two-day losing streak, MarketWatch data showed. The stock remains about 11% below its 52-week high of $22.56 set in September.
Other rate-sensitive names were also lower in midday trade, including UWM Holdings down about 1.2% and LoanDepot down about 0.7%. Mortgage insurers MGIC Investment and Radian Group were each off less than 1%.
A regulatory filing signed on Dec. 29 showed Rocket director Matthew Rizik sold 7,500 Class A shares across three sessions in late December at weighted-average prices around $18.92 to $19.44. The filing said the sales were made under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, a pre-arranged program that can allow insiders to trade on a set schedule.
Macro data also stayed in focus as markets wrapped up the year. New filings for U.S. unemployment benefits fell to 199,000 last week, a one-month low, the Labor Department said, pointing to a labor market that economists have described as “no hire, no fire.” Reuters
Still, lower mortgage rates have not fully solved affordability constraints. Home listings have been rising and sellers have been cutting asking prices as homes sit longer, while economists cited by AP expect 30-year mortgage rates to stay just above 6% into 2026.
Investors are also watching the 10-year Treasury yield, a key benchmark for mortgage pricing, as the housing market heads into the early-2026 homebuying season. Barron’s flagged the bond market as a central driver of whether the recent rate relief sticks.
The next major catalysts for rate-sensitive stocks arrive early in January: the December U.S. jobs report is scheduled for Jan. 9, followed by the December CPI inflation report on Jan. 13. The Federal Reserve’s next policy meeting is slated for Jan. 27-28.
Traders will also navigate a thin holiday calendar. U.S. exchanges will be closed on Thursday for New Year’s Day, with the next regular session on Friday.
