As stocks rally mortgage rates pressured higher

Think your life is busy?  Each year the IRS receives over 290 million tax returns which the IRS receives.  According to the IRS only .50% of all filed tax returns are audited.

The IRS also reports that over 9,000 tax returns are filed where the taxpayer makes more than $200,000/ year but pays $0 income tax.  Has the President released his tax returns yet?

Stock Market

Earnings season is underway and analysts expect in aggregate that corporations will report stable or declining profits compared to last year.

However, financial companies appear to be bucking that expectation.  Last Friday Chase Bank reported better than expected financial results and earlier today Bank of America did the same.

The US Stock market has now completely recovered the declines it incurred at the end of 2018 and the S&P 500 is only 35 points away from all-time highs.  If profits fail to grow and stock prices continue to rally it may reignite concern over valuations which I wrote about last summer (HERE).

Mortgage Rates

As stocks rallied last Friday it pushed mortgage rates up by ~.125%.  See why HERE.

10-year treasury note

The yield on the US 10-year treasury note is currently trading at 2.58% which just below an important technical layer of resistance.  If yields break above this level then I expect mortgage rates to increase an additional .125%.

The Week Ahead

The economic calendar is heavy on new residential construction this week.  Earlier today the Home Builders’ Index was released and showed greater optimism amongst home builders compared to last month.

On Friday we’ll see fresh numbers for building permits and new housing starts.

Current Outlook: locking bias