Rate Update February 8, 2010
Mortgage rates are unchanged from Friday.
It will be a light week in terms of economic reporting. We’ll be tracking three main influences on mortgage rates:
- 1) US Treasury Auctions: The treasury is scheduled to auction $81 billion in notes and bonds this week. Although treasury auctions have yet to have a material impact on mortgage rates we maintain the threat exists. Click HERE to understand how government borrowing can influence mortgage rates.
- 2) Greece & Portugal’s fiscal health: Over the past two weeks the problems surrounding Greece and Portugal have driven investors into “safe” US fixed-income investments. This “flight-to-quality” has helped push yields lower. Should the situation improve we’d expect rates to reverse higher and vice versa.
- 3) Stock market: Whenever economic data is light mortgage-backed bonds (MBS’s) tend to react to the stock market and technical trading patterns. Stocks have started the week lower which should help keep rates low.
Current outlook: float