News You'll Use

This was a tough week for mortgage rates, as rates have hit highs we haven't seen since last November. We saw hot inflation numbers coming out last Friday, and this week we saw higher level of prices in manufacturing data and higher labor costs data in productivity numbers.

 

With news out of Europe indicating higher-than-expected inflation, and Fed speakers who continue to be very aggressive in their stance that they will continue to raise rates until inflation and the economy cools off, and that's the cause of the jump.

 

We've been pointing to a data-dependent stance this month and still feel that is the best mindset. Next week we start to get labor data for February and that will set the tone of where rates move for next month.

 

• Mortgage Applications fell 5.7% this week

• US 10-year Treasury closed at 4.05% on Thursday afternoon

• Durable Goods Orders came in below analyst's expectations (-4.5% m/m vs expectations of -4.0% m/m)

• Pending Home Sales came in above analyst's expectations (+8.1% m/m vs expectations of +1.0% m/m)

• FHFA House Price Index came in above analyst's expectations (-0.1% m/m vs expectations of -0.2% m/m)

• S&P Case-Shiller HPI came in below analyst's expectations (-0.51% m/m vs expectations of -0.4% m/m and 4.65% y/y vs expectations of 4.80% y/y)

• Conference Board Consumer Confidence came in below analyst's expectations (102.9 vs expectations of 108.5)

• ISM Manufacturing came in slightly below analyst's expectations (47.7 vs expectations of 48.0)

• Initial Jobless claims came in below analyst's expectations (190k vs expectations of 195k)