Cari Anderson's East Bay Mortgage Update for September 3rd, 2010

Cari Anderson's East Bay Mortgage Update for September 3rd 2010

Economic News:  The stock market has done well this week and is poised to end a three week downturn.  Much of this week's economic data was better than expected which boosted equities and hurt bonds.

On Monday Personal Income & Outlays were reported for July.  Consumer Income rose .20% month over month and year over year showed a rise of 3%.  Consumer Spending was up .40%, beating estimates, and rose 3.4% over last year.

On Tuesday it was reported that the Case-Shiller Home Price Index for June rose 1% month over month and 5% year over year.  Keep an eye out for the July and August numbers for an indication of what we can expect for the remainder of the year.  Also reported was Consumer Confidence for August at 53.5.  This was up from July's revised reading of 51.0. 

Wednesday brought us the ISM Manufacturing Index for August.  The numbers came in well above consensus at 56.3 and, while there is some concern with the softening of new orders, it was a solid report.

Initial Jobless Claims were reported on Thursday at 472,000 and have trended downward over the past two weeks.  Continuing Claims also fell and the four week moving average was lower by more than 100,000 from last month's report.  Thursday also held the Pending Home Sales Index.  The index rose to 79.4 for July with gains reported in all regions which could help with the Existing Homes Sales reports for August and September.

Lastly, Friday brought us the much awaited Employment Report.  While the overall unemployment rate inched up to 9.6% (the government shed 121,000 jobs and 114,000 of those were census workers) there was some positive data in the report.  Private industry added 67,000 jobs and there was a slight uptick in average hours worked as well as wages.

Mortgage Markets: The 10 Year Note is losing ground this morning with the yield rising to 2.713% and Mortgage Backed Securities are under a little pressure and fixed rates are a little worse while ARM's remain stable.

Next Week's Reports:  A quiet week for data.  Thursday:  International Trade & Jobless Claims.

Current Mortgage Rates

Stay tuned for the Next East Bay Mortgage Update...