Mortgage rates improved last week. The Fed’s release of the minutes for the June FOMC meeting was the most noteworthy economic event last week; the minutes repeated the Fed’s recent statement concerning the wind-down of its current monetary easing policy. The minutes indicated that about half of meeting participants wanted to end the quantitative easing (QE) policy by year end, while “many others” preferred to end the program in 2014. This split suggests that days are numbered for the Fed’s monthly purchases of bonds. It remains unknown whether the bond market will continue to build on last weeks improvements or take a turn for the worse this week. Financial markets and interest rates are expected to remain volatile throughout this busy week. Fed Chairman Bernake is scheduled to deliver the semi-annual Humphrey-Hawkins report on monetary policy on Wednesday and Thursday:
In this volatile rate environment be careful when making rate decisions and to lock if the numbers make sense as mortgage rates are still at historic lows.
Time (ET) | Statistic | For | Actual | Market Expects | Prior |
08:30:00 AM | Jun | 0.40% | 0.70% | 0.50% | |
08:30:00 AM | Retail Sales ex-auto | Jun | 0.00% | 0.40% | 0.30% |
08:30:00 AM | Jun | - | 0.30% | 0.10% | |
08:30:00 AM | Core CPI | Jun | - | 0.20% | 0.20% |
09:15:00 AM | Jun | - | 0.30% | 0.00% | |
09:15:00 AM | Jun | - | 77.70% | 77.60% | |
08:30:00 AM | Jun | - | 958K | 914K | |
08:30:00 AM | Jun | - | 1000K | 974K | |
02:00:00 PM | Fed's Beige Book | Jul | - | NA | NA |
08:30:00 AM | 07/13/13 | - | 348K | 360K | |
10:00:00 AM | Philadelphia Fed | Jul | - | 5.3 | 12.5 |
10:00:00 AM | Jun | - | 0.30% | 0.10% | |
01:15:00 PM | 10-year Treasury TIPS Auction | - | - | - | - |