News You'll Use

Mortgage rates slightly rose this week, as the market awaits another Fed Rate hike next week. The Fed is expected to raise Fed Funds rates from 5.00%-5.25% to 5.25%-5.5% at that meeting. The market will be looking for any hints from the Fed and specifically Chair Powell on if they are wanting to increase rates beyond that level. At the current level of the Fed Funds rate, another rate hike will not move the needle in mortgages and bonds that much. The larger concern is when will the hikes stop and how long are they able to hold rates at these restrictive levels. The Fed has been saying they want rates higher for longer since they have begun this hiking cycle. Once the market believes the Fed will need to start cutting rates, we could see mortgage rates come down quickly.

• US 10-year Treasury closed at 3.85% on Thursday afternoon

• Empire Manufacturing came in higher than analyst's expectations (1.1 vs expectations of -3.5)

• Retail Sales came in lower than analyst's expectations (0.2%m/m vs expectations of 0.5% m/m)

• Housing Permits came in lower than analyst's expectations (1.434 million vs expectations of 1.48 million)

• Building Permits came in lower than analyst's expectations (1.44 million vs expectations of 1.5 million)

• Initial Jobless Claims came in lower than analyst's expectations (228k claims vs expectations of 240k claims)

• Mortgage Applications rose 1.1% this week