April 5th, 2019 9:27 AM by T. Fanning
Last Updated: 4/5/19Friday's bond market has flipped back and forth between positive and negative ground during early trading. Stocks are showing moderate gains, pushing the Dow up 54 points and the Nasdaq up 40 points. The bond market is currently up 3/32 (2.50%), which should be enough to slightly improve this morning's mortgage rates. That is assuming that it holds it current level and doesn't move back into negative ground.The big economic news this morning was March's Employment report at 8:30 AM ET. It showed that the unemployment rate held at 3.8% while 196,000 new jobs were added to the economy last month. The unemployment rate matched expectations but the job number was higher than predicted (170k). Furthermore, there were minor upward revisions to February and January's numbers that added a total of 14,000 jobs to the previously announced figures. The higher job numbers make this portion of the report bad news for bonds and mortgage rates.Good news came in the average earnings reading that showed an increase in wages of only 0.1%, weaker than the 0.2% that was expected. The forecasted 0.2% rise was on the weaker end of the 0.2 and 0.3% increases that we have come to expect in this report. Falling short of the lower end allows the bond market to react to the news even more. Despite mixed results in the overall report, it is this inflation-sensitive reading that has bonds in positive ground at the momentNext week has handful of reports and other events scheduled that are expected to influence mortgage rates. It starts Monday with the release of February's Factory Orders report, but the heavy part of the calendar comes mid-week with a couple of inflation indexes and two Treasury auctions. There a few speaking engagements by Fed Chairman Powell showing late next week, all at a Democratic Economic convention. Until a more defined schedule and topic is posted, it is difficult to say if these are major speeches. Look for details on all of next week's activities 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...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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