Atlanta, GA Market Update - August 26, 2010

Mortgage bonds opened higher on the day.  They quickly lost their ground when the Initial Job Claims number was released.  The Jobless Claims for last week were slightly better than expected.  This gave the equity market slight optimism after a week of disappointing housing data. 

Initial jobless claims for the week ended August 21 totaled 473,000.  This is down 31,000 in week-over-week numbers.  It is also less than the 485,000 claims that had previously been expected.  At 1:00 pm EST today, the last auction on the week was held.  It is a $29 billion 7 year note offering. 

Tomorrow, we will see the revised 2^nd quarter GDP number.  We also will have Fed Chief Bernanke speaking at 10:00 am EST tomorrow about our economic outlook at a conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  This is for the Kansas City Fed's Annual Symposium.  The market will be eagerly awaiting his speech.