The data that came out this week is not the most market moving as compared to other weeks, but was worth noting. Some investors were relieved that the international news (read No. Korea) was looking better. Stayed tuned next week for JOBS JOBS JOBS…
Tuesday: March New Homes sales were up 4% on a month over month basis, which not overly great but average, so no market movement on this news.
Thursday: March Durable Goods were up 2.6% – also not good for rates.
Friday: The government announced that the First Quarter GDP slowed to an annualized rate of 2.3%. The First Quarter Employment Cost Index gained 0.8% — combined, both things are bad for interest rates.
There continues to be a scarcity of properties for homebuyers causing bidding wars. How much is too much to overpay? That will be the topic for next week’s newsletter.
While all this news was a little negative for rates, the interest rates only went up 0.125% over last week’s rates.