Rate Update

Rates are off their best levels this morning, after they faced the same floor that we have now hit 4 times in as many months.

In other news, the government's "stress tests" for banks indicated that Bank of America and Citigroup may need to raise more capital. This isn't a major surprise, but does seem contrary to their recent favorable earnings reports. Also in the news, Consumer Confidence for April came in at its fourth largest gain in the history of the survey.

I reccommend locking as rates can't seem to go below this level.

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Rate Update

Mortgage Bonds are trading flat but starting to trend downward, which is not good for interest rates..

New Home Sales came out slightly better than expected, showing a 356K pace for March, whereas only 337K was expected. The good news was that the inventory number continues to fall – now at a 10.7 month supply, compared with February’s 11.2 months.

I recommend locking as there is an enormous $101B worth of Treasury supply hitting the market next week, which could weigh heavily on Bond prices.”

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Rate Update

The stock market is taking losses this morning and that is a positive for the bond market and interest rates. This is about three weeks in a row that the stock and bonds markets have reacted inversely, as they should. Stocks are down after the government has announced that they may convert their preferred stock to common stock in the financial institutions. This will dilute the share values, and that has investors reacting by selling.

Because of the pressure on stocks I recommend floating, but remember we are getting back to our interest rate floor that we haven’t been able to breakthrough.

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Rate Update

The stock and bond markets are both flat this morning, after Consumer Price Index and Empire State Manufacturing numbers came in a better than expected. This after the news from Goldman Sachs earlier in the week, is adding some stability to the market.

We are reached this level on interest rates 3 times in the last 4 months, and have hit the same floor. Because of this history I recommend locking today. I don’t see much upside to floating, with this floor in place.

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Rate Update

Both the stock and bond markets are up a little today. On the positive side of things Pulte Homes bought Centex Homes today in what essentially was a stock swap.
In the last year Centex has gotten out of the mortgage business and the homebuilding business.

Later today, the Fed will release the Minutes from its March meeting, and the government will auction off $35 Billion worth of 3-Year Notes.
Interest rates are back down to their lows of a couple of weeks ago. Again I think this is a floor on rates, we have hit it 3 times in the past and have yet to drop below it.

Because of this I recommend locking today.

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Rate Update

Bonds are up this morning as the stock market is having another bad day. Again the bank stocks are dragging it down. This however is good news for rates as we move back down to the historic lows of a couple of weeks ago.

There aren’t any economic reports out today, but companies start to report earnings from the 1st quarter. There probably won’t be many surprises here, and it won’t be pretty.

I recommend floating again today.

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Rate Update

The stock market is down today as a result of the bank stocks taking big hits. Again the Mark to Market change will help these companies long term, it will just take a little time to sort it out. In a “normal market” action the bond market is up because of stocks. This is what we normally see, but haven’t seen in months. Maybe this is a sign that things are starting to straighten themselves out.

The markets close early on Thursday and are closed on Friday for the holiday. Normally short weeks aren’t good for interest rates, but this one maybe a little different.

Since we are up from the lows of a couple of weeks ago, I recommend floating today.

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Rate Update

Well the jobs report was right in line with expectations. Also revisions for January and February were pretty close to original numbers. Both the stock and bond markets are relatively flat on this news. After just one day of the new accounting rules, we are hearing that things are already looking brighter for the banks.

I recommend floating today as I think rates will come back from our losses yesterday.

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Rate Update

Just as we talked about yesterday the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) voted favorably to relax mark-to-market and help financial institutions. The big change is to allow financial companies to use alternate models, like cash flow analysis, in marking assets.

Also as predicted this has helped the stock market in a big way, and has been a negative for bonds and interest rates.

Also helping Stocks is optimism that the G20 meeting underway in London will agree on ways to pull global economies out of the current recession.

Again today I reccommend locking today.

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Rate Update, Big Day Tomorrow

Today numbers were released that showed 742,000 jobs lost in March, far worse than expectations of 663,000 jobs lost and the worst reading in ADP's nine years of reporting as the labor market continues to struggle.

However its not affecting the Stock and Bond markets as both are flat today. Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an executive outplacement company, released some findings today stating that planned layoffs at US firms fell in March to their lowest in six months.

Tomorrow the Accounting Standards Board is going to release their decision on "Mark to Market" accouting. It is expected that they will revise the current guidelines. This could be a huge boost to the Stock market, and normally that is bad for interest rates.

Because of that I reccommend locking today.

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