Well, I was certain we'd be moving one way or another in dramatic fashion today (my fear was much worse rates), but the reports today all came out very close to expectations, with a mix of slightly positive and negative news. The unemployment rate was 5.7%, the highest in 4 year. Slightly less jobs were lost than expected. The inflationary data today was also tame, which is a plus for mortgage rates (whenever I say good, plus, positive, it means lower rates).
We might not see much happen today - it's still early to tell. After several days of improvement, today isn't a bad day to lock if your loan is closing next week. You remove any weekend risk, and no one would blame you for locking in the gains we've seen. Long-term, my outlook is still very negative on the economy and financial stocks. I think the worst is still coming. We haven't even talked about credit card portfolios yet, and that bag is just as big as the subprime mortgage market.
Have a great weekend!
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