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Mortgage Rates Slip to 6.65% as Tokyo and Washington Prepare a Joint Yen Move

US borrowing costs edged lower and CD curves stayed inverted, while sources say Japan and the US will announce coordinated action on the yen and the PBOC signals tool adjustments.

August 2, 2026 Rates & Fed

US mortgage rates drift lower

Zillow marketplace data puts the 30-year fixed at 6.65%, down 10 basis points from last week, with the 15-year fixed off 3 basis points to 6.01% and the 5/1 ARM up a single basis point to 6.65%. Refinance rates sit slightly below purchase rates — 6.57% on the 30-year fixed and 6.01% on the 15-year — the reverse of the usual relationship. Government-backed loans remain the cheapest access point, with the 30-year VA at 6.11% and the 15-year VA at 5.83%.

The deposit curve is still upside down

The best CD rate available is 4.10%, offered by Marcus by Goldman Sachs on a nine-month term. The tenor is the point: historically banks paid more for longer commitments, and today the opposite holds. A short-dated deposit out-yielding longer ones is the same shape the front end has shown all year, and it means savers are being paid not to lock in duration — the mirror image of the mortgage market, where 15-year money costs 64 basis points less than 30-year money.

A coordinated yen intervention would be the week's biggest FX event

Sources say Japan will announce that Tokyo and Washington took joint action on the yen — a materially different signal from unilateral Japanese intervention, since coordination implies US assent to the level rather than mere tolerance of Japan's defense of it. That is our read of the significance; the reported fact is the joint announcement itself. The move lands alongside questions about how an adjustment in Japanese stocks feeds through to USD/JPY, and wires this weekend also ran an explainer on what a "rate check" is in foreign exchange — the vocabulary of intervention is back in circulation.

Beijing keeps optionality

China's central bank pledged timely adjustment of its policy tools, a signal of readiness rather than a change in stance. It arrives in a week when Chinese assets were the source of a global equity shock rather than its victim, and when Chinese VC managers were raising money on the pitch that global investors want a hedge against US exposure.

Sources

Not investment advice.