April 17th, 2020 9:00 AM by T. Fanning
Last Updated: 4/17/20Friday's bond market has opened in positive territory despite early stock strength. The major stock indexes are showing relatively sizable gains, pushing the Dow higher by 297 points and the Nasdaq up 53 points. The bond market is currently up 7/32 (0.59%), but a little weakness late yesterday should prevent us from seeing an improvement in this morning's mortgage rates if comparing to Thursday's early pricing.Today's sole economic release was March's Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) from the Conference Board. They announced a decline of 6.7%, meaning the indicators are predicting a big slowdown in economic activity over the next several months. This size of a decline was close to expectations. Therefore, we have not seen much of a reaction to the news.Stocks are drawing the most attention this morning. Their rally is being fueled by optimism about a potential coronavirus treatment drug and talk of starting to reopen parts of the U.S., possibly restarting the economy. The theory is that the sooner businesses are allowed to start operating at full capacity again, the quicker the economy will rebound. Stronger economic activity is generally good news for stocks, making bonds less appealing to investors.Next week has a few relevant economic reports scheduled that may influence mortgage rates, but only one is considered to be highly important and it comes late in the week. There is nothing scheduled for Monday that we need to be concerned with. We can expect weekend news regarding the pandemic and reopening parts of the country to drive trading as the week begins. Look for details on next week's calendar in 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...Float 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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