It’s a quiet week ahead when it comes to scheduled economic reports, but that doesn’t mean the volatility will quiet down. Keep a look out on Thursday for the Existing Home Sales Report for a read on the housing market. Last week showed a decent Housing Starts number, so it will be interesting to see if Existing Home Sales shows some good news for the Housing Market.

Also on Thursday, another Initial Jobless Claims report will be released. Last week, first time claims for unemployment benefits dropped by 47,000 to the lowest level since January. However, the reading is somewhat distorted by shifts in the timing of auto plant shutdowns. Usually plants would shut down in July, meaning last week’s unemployment claims number would usually have been higher, but the shutdown process was accelerated due to the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler. Therefore, the seasonal adjustment makes this number look rosier than it really is.

In addition, earnings season continues with important reports from Legg Mason, Coca Cola, Dupont, Apple, Wells Fargo, Pepsi, eBay, and Xerox among others…and if these reports are good, Stocks could continue to improve, at the expense of Bonds and home loan rates.

Remember: Weak economic news normally causes money to flow out of Stocks and into Bonds, helping Bonds and home loan rates improve, while strong economic news normally has the opposite result. Bonds and rates worsened on the heels of a rally in Stocks. I’ll be watching to see if Bonds can remain above key support, which would help home loan rates stabilize. As always, I encourage you to give me a call to discuss how the current rate environment might benefit you.

 

 

Jim Marcinkowski

Mortgage Consultant

8695 College Pkwy.

Suite 2440

Fort Myers, FL 33919

239-936-4232 Office

239-826-6400 Cell

239-985-4486 Fax

 

 

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Tags: Add new tag, bankruptcies, home sales, money, mortgage, re-building credit, stimulus plan

This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 7:17 pm and is filed under The Mortgage Broker's Corner. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.