Operator Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the MFA Financial, Inc. first-quarter earnings 2021 conference call. [Operator instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Mr. Hal Schwartz. Please go ahead, sir. Hal Schwartz -- Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. The information discussed on this conference call today may contain or refer to forward-looking statements regarding MFA Financial, Inc., which reflect management's beliefs, expectations, and assumptions as to MFA's future performance and operations. When used, statements that are not historical in nature, including those containing words such as will, believe, expect, anticipate, estimate, should, could, would or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements.