Rate Update April 14, 2009

Fixed Mortgage Rates are even with Monday.

The Bond Market is currently trading sideways on the day, still battling resistance at what now is the ceiling of the 25-day moving average.  Working against mortgage bonds will be a couple things: 

1)       Inflation talks continue to gain more attention as many analysts will be watching tomorrow’s Consumer Price Index report.  Although it is unlikely that inflation will start to show much face in this upcoming report, many feel that as the year progresses the stimulus being injected into the economy will cause some inflation.  Maybe the mention of this problem is the first step of the economy starting to recover?

2)       Earnings reports have been getting released for the past couple days and so far some big names like Goldman Sachs and Johnson & Johnson have reported earnings above expectations.  And of course last week’s big announcement of Wells Fargo’s earnings of over $3 Billion.  If these earnings are good enough to spark a rally in the stock market, it could pull investor dollars away from bonds and prevent mortgage rates from getting much lower.

The good news for mortgage rates is that the Fed is still motivated to buy Mortgage Backed Securities so hopefully that added demand will help to keep Mortgage Rates low; even if other indicators would be causing rates to increase.

Current Outlook: Bias towards Locking