This week the markets were still holding back from any big moves due to the new tax laws. Depending on what gets written into the law and passed and what gets eliminated from the old laws, many people and companies will be affected.
Changes now would be foolish, so, it’s a wait and see attitude. However there was some economic news that was notable.
Tuesday the PPI (producer price index) was up 0.4% which is not a good thing for interest rates. Higher prices means potentially higher inflation which means interest rates will go up.
Wednesday the CPI (consumer price index) was up 0.1%, with the core rate up 0.2%, which is interest rate neutral.
Thursday the Industrial Production was up 0.9% with capacity utilization up 0.6% to 77% – this news just slightly left mortgage interest rates negative.
So with all those tiny bits of news, mortgage rates remain the same week over week.