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Thursday’s bond market has opened up slightly with stocks posting another
round of losses as the government shutdown continues without a quick
resolution in sight. The Dow is currently down 123 points while the Nasdaq
has lost 31 points. The bond market is currently up 3/32, but I don’t
believe we will see much of an improvement in this morning’s mortgage rates
due to weakness during late trading yesterday.
We did get last week’s unemployment figures early this morning. The report
showed that 308,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last
week. This was a slight change from the previous week’s revised total of
307,000 initial claims, indicating the employment sector didn’t strengthen
or weaken much last week. Since analysts were expecting to see an increase
in new claims that would have pointed towards a softening sector, we should
consider the news slightly negative for the bond market and mortgage rates.
Fortunately, it has had little impact on this morning’s trading or mortgage
pricing.
Fed Chairman Bernanke’s afternoon speech yesterday was a non-factor in the
markets. He gave the opening statement at a community banking conference in
St. Louis, but did not address monetary policy or other matters that were
relevant to mortgage rates. He also did not participate in a Q&A
session, so there was no opportunity to draw information or opinions out of
him.
Tomorrow was supposed to be the key day of the week with the release of
September’s Employment report that was going to create havoc in the
financial and mortgage markets. Due to the stalemate in Washington D.C.,
that is not going to happen though. There is no private-sector economic
reports scheduled tomorrow that have the potential to move mortgage rates,
although, there are a couple of speaking engagements by multiple Fed
members throughout the day. There is always a possibility of their words
affecting the markets, particularly since traders have little else to focus
on. I expect stock movement to drive early bond trading and morning
mortgage rates. Then we can turn our attention to those speeches for any
surprises later in the day.
If I were considering financing/refinancing a home, I would.... Lock if my
closing was taking place within 7 days... Lock if my closing was taking
place between 8 and 20 days... Float if my closing was taking place between
21 and 60 days... Float if my closing was taking place over 60 days from
now...
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