January 27th, 2017 10:21 AM by T. Fanning
Last Updated: 1/27/17Friday's bond market has opened in positive territory following mostly favorable economic news. Stocks are showing minor losses, pushing the Dow lower by 21 points and the Nasdaq down 6 points. The bond market is currently up 6/32 (2.49%), which should improve this morning's mortgage rates by approximately .250 of a discount point from Thursday's early pricing. Many lenders improved rates intraday yesterday as bonds strengthened, so if your lender did make that move you should see less of an improvement in today's pricing.The first of this morning's three pieces of data was the initial reading of the 4th Quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at 8:30 AM ET. It showed that the economy grew at an annual rate of only 1.9% last quarter, falling short of the 2.2% that was expected. This means that the U.S. economy was not as strong as many had expected, making the data good news for bonds and mortgage rates.Also posted early this morning was December's Durable Goods Orders that showed a 0.4% decline in new orders for big-ticket products. This was well below forecasts of a 3.0% increase in orders, pointing towards weaker manufacturing activity. The headline reading is favorable for the bond and mortgage markets even though this data is known to be quite volatile. However, a secondary reading dampens that news somewhat. If transportation-related orders such as airplanes are excluded, new orders rose 0.5%, matching expectations. The headline number is enough for us to still call this report good news for mortgage rates though.The final report of the week was the revised University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment late this morning. This index is a measurement of consumer confidence that is thought to indicate consumer willingness to spend. Today's release revealed a reading of 98.5 for January. This was a little higher than the previous estimate of 98.1 and analysts were calling for little change. Therefore, this is the slightly negative piece of data in this morning's batch. But fortunately, it was the least important of the day's three releases and has not had much of an impact on today's trading.Next week is an extremely important and busy week for the financial and mortgage markets. It is packed with data, some being key major reports, and also has the first FOMC meeting of the new year. We have a pretty important release early Monday in December's Personal Income and Outlays report to start the week. Look for details on all of next week's activities in the Sunday evening's weekly preview.If I were considering financing/refinancing a home, I would....Lock if my closing were taking place within 7 days...Lock if my closing were taking place between 8 and 20 days...Float if my closing were taking place between 21 and 60 days...Float if my closing were taking place over 60 days from now...This is only my opinion of what I would do if I was financing a home. It is only an opinion and cannot be guaranteed to be in the best interest of all/any other borrowers.**http://www.hlmcolorado.com/DailyRateAdvisory
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