Fixed and ARM rates for loans up to $625k are holding onto the 0.625% drops we saw last week after the Fed said they’d buy $500b in mortgage bonds, and rates on loans from $625k to $1m are down about 0.125%. Now that it looks like rates might hold for longer than a few days
Holiday Shopping
According to an AP headline that was widely picked up across the web, holiday shopping is off to a strong start. But CNBC called it a slow start, Bloomberg said sales were the least since 2005, WSJ said the holiday shopping mood was subdued, and the FT said that Black Friday Sales Suggest Longer Stay
Holiday shopping is always a closely-watched measure of consumer strength, and this year it’s all the more closely scrutinized because of the 18-month long credit crunch finally taking its toll on consumers. Black Friday, the Friday-after-Thanksgiving shopping day that kicks off the holiday season, got off to a deadly start with two separated incidences of
Glad to say that my first WeeklyBasis of 2008 is good news! Fixed and ARM rates are down .375% from pre-holiday levels, and it seems to be sticking because of continued recession signals implicit in recent economic data. The volatility I talked so much about in the 4Q2007 may return and make me eat those
Conforming fixed rates on loans up to $417k open this week down about .375%, and Jumbo rates on loans above $417k are about even (because Jumbos are still pricing slightly more to risk than market levels). This is a good time for borrowers to lock rates and capture lows in a week that may be
Besides some slight fluctuations, fixed and ARM rates have been steady for 2 weeks at favorably low levels. Rates should remain the same or possibly lower this holiday-shortened trading week. Rates may drop tomorrow because the bond market rallied today. Bonds benefited after Goldman Sachs downgraded Citigroup from a ‘hold’ to a ‘sell’, citing Citigroup
Rates open this week down about .125, with the 30yr jumbo fixed notably below 7%. As I reported already, rates were up slightly last week after the Fed cut the bank-to-bank Fed Funds Rate and the Fed-to-bank discount rate by .25% each. Also the economy added 166,000 jobs in October, more than twice what was
This holiday-shortened trading week, fixed and ARM rates are up slightly over last week after better than expected December retail sales. The strong retail report plus a surge in gift card sales during the holidays caused a bond sell off (which causes rates to rise). Bond traders were also betting January will be another strong
Lenders started 2006 with aggressive pricing – especially with ARMs – and the trend continues this week. What I mean by this is that ARM rates are below what bond market yields might suggest. Lenders have had help from lower bond yields since mid-December, but there have definitely been extra pricing incentives since 2006 began.
This time last month, rates were in the third week of a month-long rising trend. It was the week leading up to the November 4 jobs growth report, and the report kept the rising streak alive another week. Since then, the trend started reversing. We’ve regained about .25% of the .5% in increases. Because of
Rates are down about .125% this week over last, and we can expect markets to be tame going into the Thanksgiving weekend. I’m certainly thankful for that, as I’m sure you are too. The only big economic release this week is Consumer Confidence on Wednesday. It shouldn’t move markets much, because traders will be saving
Rates/commentary for the week of December 1, 2003. Investors fled bonds and piled up on stocks to kick off this first trading week following Thanksgiving. Sinking bond prices pushed yields up, translating into a rate increase (since last week) of about 0.25%. Holiday shoppers didn’t disappoint over the weekend, and manufacturing data released this morning