This week was a pretty quiet week with economic data until Friday.
Today we got the September retail sales were up 0.6%, which was more than expected, and the PPI (producer price index) was up 0.3%. Both are signals that higher inflation could be on the horizon.
On the other hand, the FOMC meeting minutes came out on Wednesday, indicating that there is a low, low chance of the Feds raising the prime rate (Fed funds rate) in November; that gave Wall Street investors a “mood boost,” taking money away from the bond market and pushing rates up a bit.
All in all not a, great week for the interest rate market.
Next week expected to be fairly quiet as well.