Mortgage Rate Update September 8th, 2015

Mortgage rates are priced modestly worse today compared to late last week.

Global stock markets are off to the races this morning.  Markets in Asia and Europe are broadly higher and the US is following suit.  China reported that exports decreased by 5.5% last month which is better than the previous months reading of -8.8%.  It’s a case where bad news is actually good news.  US stocks were up ~1.5% in early trading.  Good news for stocks is often bad news for mortgage rates.

In case you missed it Friday’s all-important jobs report showed that the US economy added 173,000 new jobs in August.  This number was below expectations which you would initially assume would help mortgage rates.  However, the report also revised higher previously released figures for June & July.

In housing news, Corelogic reported that 469,000 homes in the US were in some form of foreclosure (1.2% of all housing stock).  This figure is down 28% from last July and shows that as home prices climb home loan delinquencies fall.

The economic calendar is fairly light this week.  The US Treasury is scheduled to auction $24 billion in 3-year notes later today, $21 billion in 10-year notes tomorrow, and $13 billion in 30-year bonds on Thursday.  The fresh supply may make it difficult for rates to improve.

From a technical perspective mortgage rates are trading right at technical support.  I will recommend cautiously floating for now but lets not lose sight of the fact that mortgage rates are still very near 2015 lows.

Current Outlook: cautiously floating