1131 ET - Equifax is seeing more mortgage originators are using VantageScore more to measure prospective borrowers' creditworthiness. The new credit score, which regulators approved last year to be used on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages, is gaining momentum among originators who have traditionally relied on Fair Isaac's FICO score. Equifax says it expects conversions to VantageScore to accelerate once the government activates the score by providing the data and infrastructure needed to make it used more widely. Equifax lowered its VantageScore pricing to incentivize conversion to the new score. (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)

1117 ET - Where some observers took comfort in the latest Canadian inflation data, Scotiabank's Derek Holt saw warnings signs. The economist reckons Canada may be emerging from a temporary soft patch on core inflation metrics, noting that trimmed mean and weighted median inflation accelerated to the 2%-3% range in on-month seasonally adjusted annualized terms. He adds traditional core CPI was held back by one main category in March, clothing and footwear, and after controlling for this the reading was considerably stronger. The breadth of price increases also remains elevated, Holt adds. "It feels like Canada has a wicked case of confirmation bias whereby people don't want to see or believe any evidence of inflation," he says. (robb.stewart@wsj.com; @RobbMStewart)

1115 ET - Gold prices extend losses on a firmer dollar and as traders closely watch developments in U.S.-Iran negotiations and a Senate confirmation hearing for Kevin Warsh, President Trump's nominee for Federal Reserve chair. New York futures fall 1.6% to $4,750.20 a troy ounce, while the U.S. dollar index is up 0.2% to 98.30. "Higher inflation could keep the Fed on hold, potentially making the case for rate cuts less compelling," analysts at ANZ say. "Investors will be watching nominee Warsh's comments on Tuesday to get guidance." (giulia.petroni@wsj.com)

1103 ET - Structurally higher oil prices resulting from the war in the Middle East are more likely to have an impact on inflation than on economic growth, says Stephen Dover, chief market strategist at Franklin Templeton. "We think oil prices are going to be higher for the foreseeable future, looking out a year and longer." Oil is not as impactful for the U.S. as it used to be, he says."We don't see impact on earnings and growth in the economy, but we do see an impact on inflation. We are not in the stagflation camp." The inflation number might not increase that much, but the effect could be "pretty significant" for the median and lower-end consumer, he adds.(anthony.harrup@wsj.com)

1100 ET - The U.S.-Iran cease-fire is bearish for the dollar, JPMorgan's Meera Chandan and Arindam Sandilya write. "We selectively re-enter USD shorts," they say, adding that bets against the greenback should be "more selective and carry-efficient vs pre-conflict." They expect inflation to remain stubborn, supporting high-yielding currencies. Among attractive bets in a post-war scenario, Chandan and Sandilya list the Australian dollar, the Norwegian Krone, the New Zealand dollar, the euro, the Hungarian forint, the Brazilian real, the Mexican peso and the Chinese yuan. WSJ Dollar Index rises 0.1%. (paulo.trevisani@wsj.com; @ptrevisani)

1057 ET - Liquidity challenges in the private credit sector are unlikely to spread to the wider economy, Capital Economics' Stephen Brown says in a note. "While investors are trying to pull funds away from private credit, there is little sign yet of any spillovers that might be forcing traditional lenders to tighten their credit standards," he says. Data show that bank lending for commercial and industrial loans increased in the first quarter, signalling that firms are having no trouble securing funds, Brown says. (miriam.mukuru@wsj.com)

1040 ET - U.S. home prices inch up 0.1% month over month in March, Redfin says. That's the third straight month of the same increase. Prices rose 1.7% from a year earlier. Home-price growth has slowed this year on a year-over-year basis because demand is tepid. Many would-be buyers have backed off due to high mortgage rates and uncertainty about the U.S. economy. Mortgage rates rose from 6% to 6.4% in March, largely because the war in Iran pushed up oil prices and pushed markets into turmoil. But prices are still rising, not falling, because new listings of homes for sale are declining. There are still hundreds of thousands more home sellers than buyers in the market, but now some homeowners are opting to stay put rather than list their home into a soft market. (chris.wack@wsj.com)

1030 ET - Renters are seeing income growth outpacing rent hikes, Zillow says. That puts an extra $193 back in the typical household's pocket each month. That's $2,318 more a year for groceries and gas, or a head start on a down payment. The typical asking rent rose just 1.8% year-over-year to $1,910, the slowest annual pace since 2020. Single-family rents climbed 2.5% year-over-year to $2,225, the slowest annual growth ever recorded in Zillow's data series, while multifamily rents rose 1.3% to $1,757. Across both segments, rent growth is running below income growth, easing the financial pressure renters have faced since the pandemic-era surge. Affordability is beginning to recover and move closer to historical norms. (chris.wack@wsj.com)

1030 ET - U.K. inflation data for March due to be released on Wednesday are likely to show the early effects of the Middle East conflict, TrinityBridge's Isabel Albarran says in a note. The consensus forecast by economists in a WSJ survey is for headline inflation to rise to 3.3% in March, from 3.0% in February. Global oil supply disruption is expected to remain in the coming months, Albarran says. "This could see the oil price staying higher for longer, with an inevitable impact on both prices and activity," she says. (miriam.mukuru@wsj.com)

1017 ET - Bitcoin prices have improved since finding a low of just below $63,000 in early February, according to data from CoinMarketCap. It has bounced more than $10,000 a token since then, with Zach Pandl of Grayscale suggesting in a note that bitcoin may have already set its near-term low. "Many recent buyers are back to breakeven-potentially signaling that Bitcoin has put in a durable market bottom in the $65,000 to $70,000 range," says Pandl. At $74,000, bitcoin transactions are seen as largely breakeven, says Pandl. Bitcoin is down 0.5% to $75,930 in morning trade, while ethereum has dropped 1.1% to $2,312. Privacy coin Monero is having a strong showing today, up 6.3% to over $375, according to data from LSEG. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com)

1017 ET - The cost of insuring euro credit against default is steady as investors are cautiously optimistic ahead of expected U.S.-Iran peace talks. Markets are in a "wait and see" mode as investors await an update on the peace talks, AJ Bell's Russ Mould says in a note. The iTraxx Europe Main index of euro investment-grade credit default swaps is unchanged at 57 basis points, S&P Global Market Intelligence data show. The iTraxx Europe Crossover index of euro high-yield CDS declines 1bp to 279bps. (miriam.mukuru@wsj.com)
source: https://www.tradingview.com/news/DJN_DN20260421006727:0/