"It could reach the mid- to high thirties over the next 12 to 18 months, given a stable-to-declining interest-rate environment," he said.

In a rising interest-rate environment, moreover, holders of existing adjustable-rate mortgages that are linked to an index are also usually affected, along with new mortgage shoppers.

We're in a very volatile interest-rate environment and they got nailed.

A. Essentially, equity markets are caught between a difficult real economic environment and a favorable interest-rate environment.

Nondurable stocks, defensive issues that usually do well in a favorable interest-rate environment, were strong yesterday.

It is not only the deteriorating interest-rate environment that makes a steeper fall in stocks possible.

Further, the bank is asset-sensitive if its liabilities reprice more slowly than its assets in a changing interest-rate environment.

In the documents, the analysis of how the mortgage investments would perform in various interest-rate environments was apparently adjusted to minimize their true risk.

The interest-rate environment was friendly.

Spurring this growth is the current low interest-rate environment, which has forced six-month bank C.D. rates down to an average of less than 4 percent.