Friday’s bond market has opened in negative territory with an uneventful opening in stocks to influence trading and stronger than expected economic news. The stock markets are mixed with the Dow up 37 points and the Nasdaq down 5 points. The bond market is currently down 7/32, but we will likely see little change in this morning’s mortgage rates due to strength late yesterday.
The Conference Board said late this morning that their Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) rose 0.9% last month, exceeding forecasts of a 0.6% increase. This means the data is predicting a fairly rapid rate of economic growth over the next several months, making it negative news for bonds and mortgage rates. Fortunately, the data is not one of the more important reports we see each month. Still, it is unfavorable for the bond market, helping to keep bonds in negative ground this morning.
Next week is going to be fairly busy in terms of economic reports scheduled for release, especially considering there will only be 3 trading days due to the Thanksgiving holiday. It starts Monday morning when the National Association of Realtors releases October’s Existing Home Sales report, giving us a measurement of housing sector strength.
The rest of the week brings us the release of a handful or reports that may influence mortgage pricing, including the minutes from the most recent FOMC meeting. There are also two Treasury auctions that have the potential to affect mortgage pricing. by Al Bowman via Mark Woloshuk