Rates Drop Despite Big Job Number Under normal circumstances, a big positive job number like the one we saw on Friday, would have sent mortgage rates upward.
[Mortgage Minute] Week of May 2, 2016
Soft Fed Statement Helps Rates The big event last week was Wednesday’s Fed meeting. A dovish Fed statement was positive for mortgage rates. The additional economic data released over the past week closely matched expectations, so it had little impact. Mortgage rates ended the week slightly lower.
[Mortgage Minute] Week of Apr. 18, 2016
Tepid Inflation and Retail Sales Keep Rates Flat Core CPI inflation, which excludes the volatile food and energy components, was 2.2% higher than a year ago, down from a 2.3% annual rate in February, and below the consensus forecast.
[Mortgage Minute] Week of Apr. 4, 2016
Yellen Speech is Music to Market’s Ears Despite the release of a wide range of major economic data, a speech from Fed Chair Yellen had the biggest influence on mortgage rates over the past week. Her comments were favorable for both stocks and bonds, and mortgage rates ended the week lower.
[Mortgage Minute] Week of Mar. 7, 2016
Strong Job Gains, Wages Stagnant Friday’s Employment report showed that job gains remained strong, with the economy adding 242K jobs in February.
[Mortgage Minute] Week of Jan. 18, 2016
Rates Dip As China Slips Investors have grown more concerned that economic growth, particularly in China, will slow more rapidly than expected.
[Mortgage Minute] Week of Jan. 4, 2016
Housing and Inflation in the Spotlight as 2016 Begins The last batch of data released on housing activity showed that we are ended 2015 at better levels than in 2014, but below the best levels of the year.