Mortgage Rate Update February 8, 2016

Mortgage rates remain at the best levels in the past 12 months.

Friday’s all-important jobs report was a miss.  The markets had been expecting +188,000 new jobs and the report showed only +158,000 jobs created during the month of January.  Furthermore, the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised lower its previously released figure for December.  Bad news for the economy is often good news for mortgage rates.

Speaking of bad news, the stock market is off to a rough start this week.  As I type the Dow Jones Industrial Average is off ~350 points (-2.18%).  Germany’s DAX index was off by ~3% today.  Market sentiment has turned sour on the global economy.

 

Last week China released data showing their manufacturing sector declining at the fastest clip in 3 years.  In Europe there is growing concern over the stability of their financial sector because of their exposure to emerging markets (which generally rely on commodity prices to repay debts).

All in all fear and uncertainty are currently driving the markets and US interest rates tend to benefit when this holds true.  We will shift to floating until we see sentiment begin to change.

Current Outlook: floating