News You'll Use

Mortgage rates rose this week, as the rates moved higher with not much data or news. The Fed minutes came out on Wednesday afternoon, but no out of the ordinary comments were found in the minutes. The Fed mentioned that if the economy is still strong, they may need to raise rates further, but that has been their stance for some time. Retail Sales did come in surprisingly strong, although this move higher feels like the market is moving higher because it can. Looking at the U.S. 10-year treasury chart, the momentum has been for higher rates and the rates have followed that momentum. Next week we have Fed Chair Powell speaking at Jackson Hole. That will be the markets focus in a light data week.

• U.S. 10-year Treasury closed at 4.27% on Thursday afternoon

• Retail Sales came in higher than analyst's expectations (0.7% m/m vs expectations of 0.4% m/m)

• Housing Starts came in-line with analyst's expectations (1.452mm vs expectations of 1.45mm)

• Building Permits came in lower than analyst's expectations (1.442mm vs expectations of 1.463mm)

• Initial Jobless Claims came in-line with analyst's expectations (239k claims vs expectations of 240k claims)

• Mortgage Applications fell 0.8% this week