By Marc Chandler

This is a fairly busy week for European sovereign supply. Roughly 22 bln euros will be raised. This includes the 7.5 bln euros Italy raised yesterday by selling bonds and the 2.5 bln euros raised by Belgium in bills. Germany is seeking to raise 5 bln euros by selling 10 year bonds tomorrow and Portugal will sell bills. France and Spain plan on selling bonds on Thursday, Feb 2.

See results from the Mortgage Bankers Association's Refinance and Purchase Indexes as well as the weekly mortgage rates surveyed by Freddie Mac.

By Marc Chandler

The euro is racing higher after initially gapping lower in Asia on indications that the private sector involvement in Greece had hit another stumbling block ahead of today’s EU finance minister summit. It has moved above the $1.30 area in the European morning, for the first time since January 4. There are a few consideration prompting the continuation of the short-covering advance that began last week.

Colbert says "clearly, my fellow South Caroliniacs see me as the only viable "Mitt-ternative". Take a look.

So, is he running? Maybe. At least he’s got Jon Stewart to take over the Colbert Super PAC so he can run. It’s pretty easy too. Take a look and you’ll find out if he’s running.

By William K. Black

(Cross-posted from Benzinga.com)

We continue to witness remarkable developments in the intersection of the related fields of economics, finance, ethics, law, and regulation. Each of these five fields ignores a sixth related field – white-collar criminology. The six fields share a renewed interest in trust.

By Win Thin

Here’s the skinny on how Jeffrey Gundlach sees the best tactical bond market approach for US-based investors:

• Keep your money in dollar assets
• Watch out for counterparty risk
• Stop buying mortgage REITs
• Be worried about China
• Don’t be a closet indexer and underperform

Video below

Source: CNBC

The passage of the payroll tax holiday extension in December was a watershed moment for the mortgage and MBS markets.

How much higher can a rating agency grade a structured finance deal over its respective sovereign?

By Finance Addict

Listen: they can go kicking and screaming all they want to but, unless they’re on board to with ending the euro, it seems likely that the rich nations in Northern Europe will end up bailing out their poorer brethren. Whether they call it a bailout or not is another issue. But check out what’s already happening.

From Reuters via Xe.com: