Wednesday, August 9, 2017

What's going on and why does it matter? Mortgage bonds opened higher this morning as tensions continue to escalate between the US and North Korea.  Mortgage bonds are currently trading near their best levels of the year.  Keep in mind that the market quickly reversed course the last time mortgage bonds traded at these lofty levels.  Even so, the Fed is very supportive of the mortgage market today, with scheduled purchases of up to $1.65 billion of 30-year conventional mortgage bonds. What should you do about it?Lock your rate to be safe. ..... ..... Economic reports that may impact mortgage rates this week: Date Report Period Prior Estimate Actual Tue 8 Aug JOLTS Job Openings June 5.666M 5.775M 6.163M  Wed 9 Aug Labor Costs prelim. Q2 2017 2.2% 1.2% 0.6% Wed 9 Aug Productivity prelim. Q2 2017 0.0% 0.7% 0.9% Wed 9 Aug Wholesale Inventories June 0.6% 0.6%   Wed 9 Aug Wholesale Sales June -0.5% 0.1%   Thu 10 Aug Initial Jobless Claims Week of July 31 240,000 240,000   Thu 10 Aug PPI final demand July 0.1% 0.1%   Fri 11 Aug Core CPI July 0.1% 0.2%