WeeklyBasis: Rates Even To Slightly Down

Rates ended last week even: 30yr single family home loans to $417k closed at 4.0%. Here are Friday’s rates for all loan tiers.

But rates weren’t just flat, they were volatile all week as bond markets reconciled various inputs.

Rates started last week down as Fed chief Ben Bernanke said that without faster economic growth, unemployment wouldn’t drop from current level of 8.3%. This caused mortgage bonds to rally, and rates drop when this happens.

Midweek a 5yr Treasury Note Auction showed lower demand—bid-to-cover was 2.85, below recent averages of of 3.02—and this set a sour mood for bond markets overall, including mortgage bonds which sold, pushing rates up.

We corrected late in the week, and ultimately ended even.

As for this week, mortgage bonds are up slightly and rates are a bit better after a weak manufacturing reports out of Europe over the weekend. The U.S. ISM Manufacturing Index for March was slightly better, but Europe is outweighing it.

The manufacturing data is latest reminder that there’s no real solution to a long European slog.

As for the rest of the week’s data, here’s a rundown of key stats with rate impacts.

Looks to be another volatile yet even (or slightly down) rate week unless markets can get some optimistic signals.

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