All eyes were on the Fed this week. The Fed decided not to raise the prime lending rate and the markets loved it, giving interest rates a break. The upward movement of last week was broken.
We started the week with the Feb retail sales down .1% but then Jan. sales were revised down .4% from an initial number of up .2%. That helped rates. The PPI also was down .2%, which is interest-rate neutral. The next day we found out that the CPI dropped .2% (didn’t feel it in my family’s costs), but the core rate was up stronger than expected .3% which is mortgage-rate unfriendly. Later that day… on the 16th, we found out that housing starts were up 5.2%, and building permits were up 3.2%, the highest since 2007.
Then the Fed announced that there will be 2 more rate hikes in 2016 (as expected), but as the global economic problems pose a risk, they tabled the hike until the FOMC meeting. Between this data and the Fed waiting, the market little by little picked up steam.
Bad news created good rates this week. Check it out!