Last week's news was relatively quiet with no data significant to the mortgage lending released until Wednesday, when the federal government announced a $138 billion budget deficit for May. According to the U.S. Treasury this figure is 11 percent higher than for May of 2012, but the federal budget is expected to come in with less than a -$1 trillion deficit for the 2013 fiscal year, which runs from October to September. The Treasury estimates that the 2013 budget deficit will come in at approximately -$642 billion, well below fiscal 2012's deficit of -$1.1 trillion. The federal budget has been running deficits over -$1 trillion since 2008. Employment Market Continues To Strengthen On Thursday, the Weekly Jobless Claims report brought good news; jobless claims fell from the prior week's 346,000 jobless claims to 334,000 jobless claims. This was also less than expectations of 350,000 jobless claims. As more workers gain steady employment, this will enable more would-be home buyers to become active buyers. May Retail sales also showed slight improvement as they moved from 0.60 percent from April's 0.10 percent. According to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), the average mortgage rate for a 30year fixed rate mortgage rose from last week's 3.91 percent to 3.98 percent with discount points unchanged at 0.70 percent. The average rate for a 15-year fixed rate mortgage rose from last week's 3.03 percent to 3.10 percent with discount points holding at 0.70 percent. What' s Coming Up This Week Week Of Mon, Jun 17 2013 - Fri, Jun 21 2013 | |||||
Time | Event | Period | Unit | Forecast | Prior |
| Mon, Jun 17 | |||||
| 10:00 | NAHB housing market indx | Jun | -- | 45 | 44 |
| Tue, Jun 18 | |||||
| 08:30 | Housing starts number mm | May | ml | 0.924 | 0.853 |
| 08:30 | Building permits: number | May | ml | 0.980 | 1.005 |
| 08:30 | CPI mm, sa | May | % | 0.1 | -0.4 |
| 08:30 | Core CPI mm, sa | May | % | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| 08:30 | Core CPI yy, nsa | May | % | 1.7 | 1.7 |
| Wed, Jun 19 | |||||
| 07:00 | Mortgage market index | w/e | -- | -- | 670.7 |
| 07:00 | MBA 30-yr mortgage rate | w/e | % | -- | 4.15 |
| 14:00 | FOMC Announcement | n/a | % | -- | 0.25 |
| 14:00 | FOMC Forecasts | n/a | -- | -- | -- |
| 14:30 | Bernanke Press Conference | n/a | -- | -- | -- |
| Thu, Jun 20 | |||||
| 08:30 | Initial Jobless Claims | w/e | k | 340 | 334 |
| 08:58 | Markit PMI | Jun | -- | 52.8 | 52.3 |
| 10:00 | Existing home sales | May | ml | 5.01 | 4.97 |
| 10:00 | Philly Fed Business Index | Jun | -- | -0.2 | -5.2 |
| 13:00 | 30-Yr TIPS auction | -- | bl | 7.0 | -- |