It was a busy week this week, even with the July 4th holiday and shortened market day the day before.
On Monday, the Institute of Supply Management index for June was 57.8% versus last month’s 54.9%, considered a big jump, which means a more robust economy and possible increase in inflation with higher rates.
On Wednesday, the minutes of the Fed’s Open Market Committee showed that they have no clear timing on reducing their balance sheet (get rid of government debt that they bought back in order to keep rates low).
Thursday, the June Institute of Supply Management’s Service Sector read was more robust than predicted at 57.4% which is not good news for interest rates either.
Then of course JOBS JOBS JOBS. The June non-farm payrolls were up 222,000 and the jobless rate creeped up a little to 4.4%.
To sum up, good economic news is bad news for long term debt interest rates like our 30 year fixed rate mortgages.