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(NEW YORK) — Mortgage rates whipsawed in recent weeks as markets reacted to a flurry of policies from the Trump administration.

It began with a major milestone. Mortgage rates earlier this month fell below 6% for the first time in nearly three years, according to a data released by Mortgage News Daily.

“The progress stems directly from President Trump’s aggressive agenda to restore the American Dream of homeownership,” the White House touted in a statement on Jan. 12. The Trump administration cited its announcement days earlier, calling on government-sponsored mortgage lenders to purchase $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities.

Within little more than a week, however, mortgage rates had climbed to 6.21%, responding to rattled bond markets and erasing the previous reduction. The uptick came as Trump issued a tariff threat to European allies over his demands to acquire Greenland at the time. When Trump backed off of that levy soon afterward, mortgage rates fell but remained above previous lows, Mortgage News Daily data showed.

The volatility in mortgage rates underscored the risks posed by recent trade tensions, which threaten to push up Treasury yields and, in turn, drive mortgage rates higher, some analysts told ABC News.

Still, they added, mortgage rates will likely face downward pressure this year from anticipated interest-rate cuts at the Federal Reserve, and Trump may take further steps of his own to reduce borrowing costs.

“President Trump is certainly not sitting back and doing nothing,” Susan Wachter, a professor of real estate at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, told ABC News.

“Some of it is big things on the international front, which are potentially destabilizing. And there’s an attempt to do anything and everything for the affordability of housing,” Wachter added.

To be sure, average 30-year mortgage rates have dropped from 7.08% to 6.17% since Trump took office, according to Mortgage News Daily. That drop-off owes in part to a post-pandemic cooldown of inflation, which allowed the Federal Reserve to begin lowering interst rates.

In a social media post earlier this month, Trump said lower mortgage rates would “make the cost of owning a home more affordable. It is one of my many steps in restoring Affordability.”

Mortgage rates closely track the yield on a 10-year Treasury bond. Since bonds pay a given investor a fixed amount each year, the specter of inflation risks higher prices that would eat away at those annual payouts. In turn, bonds often become less attractive in response to economic turmoil. When demand falls, bond yields rise.

U.S. Treasury yields jumped last week in the aftermath of Trump’s tariff threat over Greenland, which appeared to presage a possible trade war with several European allies.

The 10-year Treasury yield climbed as high as 4.3% in the aftermath of Trump’s threat, before dropping steadily down to 4.21% as Trump withdrew the levy and backed negotiations over Greenland, MarketWatch data showed.

As tensions rose in response to Trump’s tariff threat, some major U.S. bondholders in Europe appeared poised to sell. A Danish pension fund, AkademikerPension, said last Tuesday it would unload U.S. treasuries by the end of the month. It remains unclear whether other European bondholders will follow suit, especially after Trump’s reversal on tariffs.

If a substantial share of U.S. bondholders were to sell off their assets, it would slash demand and push up bond yields, some analysts said.

Since 30-year mortgage rates and other key interest rates track the yield on 10-year treasury bonds, a selloff of treasuries could bring about higher monthly payments for home loans, Raymond Robertson, a professor of trade, economics and public policy at Texas A&M University, told ABC News.

“It’s a pretty big concern,” Robertson said.

Marc Norman, associate dean at the New York University School of Professional Studies and Schack Institute of Real Estate, said bondholders are evaluating the reliability of U.S. government debt.

“Basically, it’s a bet on the U.S. government,” Norman told ABC News. “If that becomes unstable and people lose trust, it could have a big effect.”

Despite the uptick in mortgage rates in recent weeks, borrowing costs for homebuyers remain markedly lower than where they stood a year ago.

Analysts attributed the drop to a series of interest rate cuts at the Fed, as well as Trump’s order calling on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy hundreds of billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities. After the order, Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to up their bond investments in an effort to put downward pressure on mortgage rates, the Associated Press reported last week.

By ordering a federal agency to buy up some mortgage-backed securities, the Trump administration helped increased demand for the underlying loans, which pushed bond yields lower, Wachter said.

“This mortgage bond proposal is not a big move but it makes a difference,” Wachter added. Wachter said she expects mortgage rates to fall further over the course of this year, though she acknowledged ongoing risk: “Investors don’t like uncertainty.”

Still, Wachter said, “If you’re looking to buy a home, today is as good a day as any.”

If homebuyers move forward with a purchase but later find that mortgage rates have continued to fall, they can opt to refinance their homes. “The old saying is, ‘You marry the home and you date the mortgage,'” Wachter said.

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Gold soared to a new record high on Monday, topping $5,000 per ounce for the first time ever as investors rushed toward the safe-haven asset amid geopolitical unrest.

The latest uptick continued a blazing-hot stretch for gold. Over the past year, the price has climbed 83%, far outpacing a 14% jump in the S&P 500 during that period. In early trading on Monday, the price of gold stood at $5,077 per ounce.

Silver prices also climbed on Monday, jumping about 8% in the early hours of trading. The price of silver stood at $110 an ounce as of Monday morning.

Heightened geopolitical and economic uncertainty have boosted demand for gold and silver, which typically display a degree of independence from movements in stock prices, some analysts previously told ABC News. Volatility in bond markets and a devaluation of the U.S. dollar, meanwhile, have unsettled alternative assets typically viewed as safe-haven investments.

The labor market has slowed in recent months, while inflation has hovered nearly a percentage point higher than the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.

Meanwhile, geopolitical conflict looms amid negotiations over Greenland, U.S.-backed leadership in Venezuela and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump threatened 100% tariffs against Canada if the country pursues a trade deal with China. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the country has no such plans. Under the terms of a free trade agreement with Mexico and the United States, Canada cannot seek trade agreements with nonmarket economies unless it provides notification ahead of time, Carney said.

Precious metals are widely viewed as a hedge against geopolitical unrest because the millennia-old stores of value are perceived as investments that could outlive calamity.

The flight to gold in moments of market turbulence draws on decades of evidence, according to an analysis co-authored in 2025 by Campbell Harvey, a professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business who studies commodity prices. The price of gold moved higher during eight of the last 11 major stock market selloffs stretching back to the late 1980s, researchers found.

However, gold and silver prices carry volatility of their own, especially when buyers enter the market at a high point, risking losses instead of providing a security blanket.

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(NEW YORK) — Stocks closed markedly higher on Wednesday after President Donald Trump backed off of tariff threats over Greenland. The major indexes recovered most of the losses they suffered the day before amid trade tensions centered on the Danish territory.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 588 points, or 1.2%, while the S&P 500 jumped 1.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 1.1%.

U.S. stocks surged on Wednesday afternoon after Trump said he would retract his proposed tariff, which had been set to hit products from seven European Union members, plus the U.K., on Feb. 1.

Earlier in the day, stocks ticked up but remained relatively muted after Trump ruled out use of the military in his push for Greenland during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Minutes after the speech, European lawmakers suspended a trade agreement with the United States over Trump’s then-ongoing tariff threats.

The EU and U.S. struck the trade agreement in July, moving to decrease tariffs on European goods and restore stability to the commercial relationship. At the time, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the agreement “creates certainty in uncertain times.”

European officials described Trump’s new round of levies as a threat to Greenland, a self-governing territory of EU-member Denmark.

Under Trump’s plan, eight European nations – including Denmark, France, Germany and the United Kingdom – were set to be slapped with 10% tariffs beginning on Feb. 1. Those levies are set to escalate to 25% on June 1.

Trump issued a social media post around 2:30 p.m. ET in which he announced he was rolling back the tariff threat on account of a “framework” deal with NATO on Greenland.

“This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations,” Trump said, adding that further negotiations would be overseen by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others. The president provided no details about the framework deal he announced.

Stocks climbed within minutes of the social media post. Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury yields fell, reversing an uptick a day earlier.

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(NEW YORK) — European lawmakers on Wednesday suspended a trade agreement with the United States over tariff threats issued by President Donald Trump as part of his push to acquire Greenland.

The announcement came minutes after President Donald Trump reasserted his call for U.S. ownership of Greenland during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The speech followed tariff threats issued by Trump days earlier against seven European Union countries, plus the U.K., over the issue.

European leaders, meanwhile, have pushed back on Trump’s ambitions. Greenland is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, a member of the EU.

Members of the Committee on International Trade (INTA) – a body within the European Parliament – hold “unshakable commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Denmark and Greenland,” European Parliament member Bernd Lange, an INTA chair on EU-US trade relations, said in a statement on Wednesday.

“By threatening the territorial integrity and sovereignty of an E.U. member state and by using tariffs as a coercive instrument, the U.S. is undermining the stability and predictability of EU-US trade relations,” Lange added.

The EU and US struck the trade agreement in July, moving to ratchet down tariffs on European goods and restore stability to the commercial relationship. At the time, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the agreement “creates certainty in uncertain times.”

On Wednesday, Lange said the E.U. would pause the ratification process in response to Trump’s proposed tariffs. Under Trump’s plan, eight European nations – including Denmark, France, Germany and the United Kingdom – will be slapped with 10% tariffs beginning on Feb. 1. Those levies are set to escalate to 25% on June 1, Trump said.

In his speech on Wednesday, Trump ruled out use of the military in his push for Greenland. “We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that,” Trump said.

U.S. stocks slumped on Tuesday in response to the tariffs, with the Dow closing down 870 points, but recovered roughly half of those losses in a rally on Wednesday morning. In Europe, the pan-continental STOXX 600 index ticked slightly lower on Wednesday.

ABC News’ David Brennan contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Stocks closed down significantly on Tuesday, deepening losses suffered at the outset of trading, after President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on multiple European countries as part of a push for U.S. control of Greenland.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 870 points, or 1.7%, while the S&P 500 declined 2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 2.3%.

Those losses marked a dip from initial trading levels on Tuesday morning, when the Dow had fallen 1.2% and the S&P 500 had declined 1.4%. The Nasdaq had dropped 1.7% at the outset of the trading session.

The selloff came on the first day of trading since Trump announced the new tariffs in a social media post on Saturday.

U.S. treasury yields jumped on Tuesday, suggesting possible concern about economic instability stemming from the confrontation between Trump and European nations.

Since bonds pay a given investor a fixed amount each year, the specter of inflation risks devaluing the asset and, in turn, makes bonds less attractive. When demand for U.S. treasuries falls, bond yields rise.

Under the proposed plan, eight European nations — including Denmark, France, Germany and the United Kingdom — will be slapped with 10% tariffs beginning on Feb. 1. Those levies are set to escalate to 25% on June 1, Trump said.

“This Tariff will be due and payable until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland,” Trump added.

Trump escalated the trade confrontation with Europe on Tuesday, threatening a 200% tariff on French wine if French President Emmanuel Macron opts to forego participation in Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace” for Gaza.

Greenland is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Trump first raised the prospect of acquiring the minerals-rich island in his first term. Danish and Greenlandic politicians have repeatedly rebuffed such proposals.

European leaders, meanwhile, continued to push back on Trump’s ambitions and publicize their coordination efforts on the issue.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X that she met with a bipartisan congressional delegation to discuss both Russia’s war in Ukraine and recent tensions around Greenland.

Von der Leyen said she “addressed the need to unequivocally respect the sovereignty of Greenland and of the Kingdom of Denmark. This is of utmost importance to our transatlantic relationship.”

ABC News’ David Brennan contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Stocks tumbled in early trading on Tuesday as President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on multiple European countries as part of a push for U.S. control of Greenland.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 735 points, or 1.4%, while the S&P 500 declined 1.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 1.8%.

The selloff came in the first trading session since Trump announced the new tariffs in a social media post on Saturday.

Under the proposed plan, eight European nations — including Denmark, France, Germany and the United Kingdom — will be slapped with 10% tariffs beginning on Feb. 1. Those levies are set to escalate to 25% on June 1, Trump said.

“This Tariff will be due and payable until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland,” Trump added.

Trump escalated the trade confrontation with Europe on Tuesday, threatening a 200% tariff on French wine if French President Emmanuel Macron opts to forego participation in Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace” for Gaza.

Greenland is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Trump first raised the prospect of acquiring the minerals-rich island in his first term. Danish and Greenlandic politicians have repeatedly rebuffed such proposals.

European leaders, meanwhile, continued to push back on Trump’s ambitions and publicize their coordination efforts on the issue.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X that she met with a bipartisan congressional delegation to discuss both Russia’s war in Ukraine and recent tensions around Greenland.

Von der Leyen said she “addressed the need to unequivocally respect the sovereignty of Greenland and of the Kingdom of Denmark. This is of utmost importance to our transatlantic relationship.”

Treasury yields jumped on Monday, suggesting possible concern about economic instability stemming from the confrontation between Trump and European nations.

Since bonds pay a given investor a fixed amount each year, the specter of inflation risks devaluing the asset and, in turn, makes bonds less attractive. When demand for U.S. treasuries falls, bond yields rise.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

ABC News’ David Brennan contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Some Verizon customers were experiencing a service outage on Wednesday afternoon, according to the company.

Verizon said it was not immediately clear how long the service would be down.

“We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers,” Verizon said in a statement to ABC News. “Our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience.”

Many Verizon customers said on social media that their phones showed “SOS” in place of network bars.

According to Downdetector at least 175,000 Verizon customers were affected at one point, but that number has since gone down. Downdetector, a site that tracks outages, said Verizon customers began noticing interrupted service around noon Eastern time.

New York Emergency Management (NYCEM) officials said the outage is affecting some users calling 911.

“Verizon is working to solve the issue,” NYCEM said in a statement. “If you have an emergency and cannot connect using your Verizon Wireless device, please call using a device from another carrier, a landline, or go to a police precinct or fire station to report the emergency. In the meantime, you can check the website or social media account of your cellphone carrier for updates.”

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(NEW YORK) — An inflation report on Tuesday is set to provide a key gauge of the nation’s economy, just days after reports of a Department of Justice probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell brought fresh scrutiny to the independence of the central bank and its capacity to manage price increases.

Economists expect year-over-year inflation to have been left unchanged at 2.7% in December. Inflation stands at its lowest level since July, but it remains nearly a percentage point higher than the Fed’s target rate of 2%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Prices for some high-profile items like coffee and beef continue to soar.

Coffee prices jumped nearly 19% year-over-year in November, the most recent month for which data is available. Beef prices climbed almost 16% over that span. Egg prices plummeted in November, however, falling 13% compared to the previous year.

The onset of elevated inflation alongside sluggish hiring in recent months had put the Fed in a difficult position, even before the DOJ opened a probe into Powell.

The central bank must balance a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment. To address pressure on both of its goals, the Fed primarily holds a single tool: interest rates.

The Fed cut interest rates at three consecutive meetings late last year in an effort to boost the flagging labor market. Still, borrowing costs remain well above a 0% rate established at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The criminal probe into Powell appears to center on allegations of false testimony he made about cost overruns in a renovation of the Fed’s headquarters during a congressional hearing in June.

Powell, who was appointed by Trump in 2017, issued a rare video message on Sunday night rebuking the investigation as a politically motivated effort to influence the Fed’s interest rate policy.

A bipartisan group of economists and former top Fed officials on Monday issued a joint statement condemning the probe as an attempt to undermine the Fed’s political independence.

The investigation follows months of strident criticism leveled at the Fed by President Donald Trump, who has urged the central bank to significantly reduce interest rates. Trump denied any involvement in the criminal investigation during a brief interview with NBC News on Sunday night.

In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “The Attorney General has instructed her U.S. Attorneys to prioritize investigating any abuse of taxpayer dollars.”

A longstanding norm of independence usually insulates the Fed from direct political interference.

In the event a central bank lacks independence, policymakers tend to favor lower interest rates as a means of boosting short-term economic activity, analysts previously told ABC News. But, they added, that posture poses a major risk in the possibility of years-long inflation fueled by a rise in consumer demand, untethered by interest rates.

Stocks closed higher on Monday, shrugging off a dip earlier in the day after reports of the DOJ probe into Powell.

Treasury yields, however, also ticked up on Monday, suggesting possible concern about the Fed’s ability to constrain inflation.

Since bonds pay a given investor a fixed amount each year, the specter of inflation risks devaluing the asset and, in turn, makes bonds less attractive. When bond prices fall due to a drop in demand for Treasuries, bond yields rise.

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(NEW YORK) — Stocks slid in early trading on Monday hours after reports that the Department of Justice had opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell centered on the central bank leader’s remarks to Congress about an office renovation project.

Powell, who was appointed by Trump in 2017, issued a rare video message rebuking the investigation as a politically motivated effort to influence the Fed’s interest rate policy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 290 points, or 0.6%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 0.3%.

The selloff on Monday also appeared to include reaction to a social media post from President Donald Trump advocating for a 10% cap on credit card interest rates for one year. Shares of several major banks fell in early trading.

The DOJ’s criminal probe follows a a monthslong influence campaign undertaken by Trump as he has frequently slammed the Fed for what he considers a reluctance to significantly reduce interest rates.

The criminal probe appears to center on allegations of false remarks made by Powell about a renovation of the Fed’s headquarters during a congressional hearing in June.

Trump has repeatedly denounced Powell for alleged overspending tied to the central bank’s $2.5 billion renovation project. The Fed attributes spending overruns to unforeseen cost increases, saying that its building renovation will ultimately “reduce costs over time by allowing the Board to consolidate most of its operations,” according to the central bank’s website.

Federal law allows the president to remove the Fed chair for “cause” — though no president has ever done so. Powell’s term as chair is set to expire in May, but he can remain on the Fed’s policymaking board until 2028. Powell has not indicated whether he intends to remain on the board.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump this week issued an attention-grabbing proposal cracking down on Wall Street in an effort to lower home prices and ease affordability woes.

In a social media post, Trump said he would move to ban large institutional investors from “buying more single-family homes” and he urged Congress to codify the policy into law. Trump accused industry behemoths of buying up properties and shutting average Americans out of the housing market.

“People live in homes, not corporations,” Trump said in the post on Wednesday.

Several analysts who spoke to ABC News are skeptical that the proposal would meaningfully reduce home prices nationwide.

Institutional investors own a small fraction of single-family homes and many of those properties are occupied by renters, they said, meaning the ban would do little to address the supply shortage at the root of the affordability crisis.

“In the scheme of things, we’re talking about such a small number of homes,” Marc Norman, associate dean at the New York University School of Professional Studies and Schack Institute of Real Estate, told ABC News.

The median price of an existing home in November stood at $409,200, the National Association of Realtors, or NAR, said last month. Prices have surged 24% over the past five years, according to NAR data.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage is 6.16%, hovering near its lowest level in 15 months, Freddie Mac data showed. But mortgage rates remain well above sub-3% levels recorded as recently as 2021.

Trump aims to address sky-high prices by shutting institutional investors out of the market for single-family homes, which in theory could alleviate the supply-demand crunch and put downward pressure on prices.

“I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes, and I will be calling on Congress to codify it,” Trump said in a social media post.

Trump did not detail the steps he planned on taking to move forward with the ban. The White House did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

On Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said in a post on X he would introduce legislation meant to codify the proposal.

Congress has previously put forward bills aimed at limiting the role of institutional investors in the market for single-family homes. In 2023, Democratic members of the House and Senate introduced a bill that would have imposed an excise tax on hedge funds that own a large number of single-family residences.

Shares of some major industry players fell in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s announcement. Blackstone, Invitation Homes and American Homes for Rent saw their stock prices fall between 4% and 6% on Wednesday.

The National Rental Home Council, or NRHC, a trade group working on behalf of the single-family rental home industry, issued a statement commending “the administration’s focus on ensuring Americans have access to a diverse mix of housing options.”

“We look forward to engaging with the White House and other policymakers in this important discussion,” the NRHC said.

The snag, these analysts said, is that institutional investors do not hold a big slice of the market.

Institutional investors own about 450,000 homes, which amounts to roughly 3% of the single-family market, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, or GAO, found in a study last year that analyzed data from 2022.

“The big question here is: Are large-scale institutional investors crowding out prospective homebuyers?” Jake Krimmel, senior economist at realtor.com, told ABC News Live. “The answer is ‘no.’”

Institutional ownership is concentrated in some regions, particularly in the Sun Belt, according to the GAO.

Institutions own 21% of homes in Jacksonville, Florida, and 18% of homes in Charlotte, North Carolina, the GAO found. In Atlanta, institutions own 1 out of 4 homes.

Analysts who spoke to ABC News disagreed about whether the ban on institutional ownership could lower prices in those highly concentrated markets.

Some said the elimination of a key source of demand could push down prices, while others cautioned the move would likely have little effect in those places, since an injection of new supply has already helped ease price pressures in many of those areas.

“In some select markets, this will have some bite,” Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, a professor of real estate at Columbia University Business School, told ABC News. “Overall, it’s not such a big deal.”

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