In case you weren’t aware today is National Siblings Day. Now is a great time to call your sibling and let them know how “okay” they are (just kidding Ceri! You are awesome).
Friday’s all-important jobs report showed that only 98,000 new jobs were created last month. This was well below expectations and the lowest output since May of 2016. Bad news for the economy tends to be good news for mortgage rates.
Also helping mortgage rates is the uncertainty regarding Syria and the US military action which took place last week. Geopolitical tension tends to drive global investors into “safe havens” which benefits interest rates here in the US.
This week’s economic calendar is fairly light. The highlights come Thursday and Friday when the Producer Price Index & Consumer Price Index are released. Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen is scheduled to speak later today and take questions via Twitter. Might she hint when the Fed will begin to unwind their balance sheet (which would likely put upward pressure on rates)?
From a technical perspective mortgage rates are presently at the low end of their trading range dating back to December. In other words, rates are currently as good as they have been for the past four months. Could they get better? Sure but the last four times they got hear they reversed and moved higher so I am going to maintain a locking bias.
Current Outlook: locking bias