Mortgage rates continued their upward trend last week. Comments by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke after Wednesday’s FOMC meeting caused havoc in financial markets as investors anticipated the potential effects of any rollback of the Fed’s policy of quantitative easing (QE). Chairman Bernanke said that the Fed may begin reducing its $85 billion monthly purchase of Treasury securities and Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) toward the end of this year. Will Mortgage Rates Fall This Week?
Rates have risen significantly over the previous 3 days, following a similar pattern over the previous month. It is doubtful that rates will drop back to the levels we saw this spring but may ease a little. Historically speaking mortgage rates are still at rock bottom low levels. There is a good amount of economic data being released this week that will impact financial markets:Economic Calendar: | ||||
| Week Of Mon, Jun 23 2013 - Fri, Jun 27 2013 | ||||
| Time | Event | Period | Unit | Forecast |
| Tue, Jun 25 | ||||
| 08:30 | Durable Goods | May | % | 3.0 |
| 09:00 | FHFA Home Price mm | Apr | % | -- |
| 09:00 | Case Shiller Home Prices | Apr | % | 1.2 |
| 10:00 | New home sales-units mm | May | ml | 0.463 |
| 10:00 | Consumer confidence | Jun | -- | 75.5 |
| 13:00 | 2-Yr Note Auction | -- | bl | 35.0 |
| Wed, Jun 26 | ||||
| 07:00 | MBA Mortgage market index | w/e | -- | -- |
| 07:00 | MBA 30-yr mortgage rate | w/e | % | -- |
| 08:30 | GDP Final | Q1 | % | 2.4 |
| 08:30 | GDP deflator Final | Q1 | % | 1.1 |
| 13:00 | 5yr Treasury Auction | -- | bl | 35.0 |
| Thu, Jun 27 | ||||
| 08:30 | Midwest manufacturing | May | -- | -- |
| 08:30 | Personal income mm | May | % | 0.2 |
| 08:30 | Consumption, adjusted mm | May | % | 0.3 |
| 10:00 | Pending sales change mm | May | % | 0.9 |
| 13:00 | 7-Yr Note Auction | -- | bl | 29.0 |
| Fri, Jun 28 | ||||
| 09:45 | Chicago PMI | Jun | -- | 56.0 |
| 09:55 | U.Mich sentiment | Jun | -- | 82.7 |