Market Update for the Week of January 17, 2023
What Happened Last Week with Rates?
Average mortgage rates improved a bit further last week, with consumer inflation data coming in that showed inflation was moving lower, as economists had forecast. Although we didn’t see a big drop, the small improvement was welcome with rates much lower than the highs near the end of 2022.
Mortgage Rate Forecast for this week:
This week mortgage rates are likely to be relatively unchanged, with some small day-to-day movement but not any big moves for the week. Mortgage rates are likely to hold near current levels this week and next week, ahead of the Fed meeting at the end of the month.
These are the three areas that have the greatest ability to impact rates this week. 1) Inflation, 2) Davos and 3) Central Banks
1) Inflation: After last week’s decline in the headline CPI data, will we see something similar in this week’s PPI data?
2) Davos: The bond market will be very sensitive to the barrage of speeches, round tables and white papers in the non stop drip of headlines out of Davos.
3) Central Banks: We get key Interest Rate Decisions and Policy Statements out of the Bank of Japan and the People’s Bank of China.
TECHNICALS:
The UMBS 5.5 coupon (MBS or mortgage backed securities) at 101.20, -27bps. A weak open from overnight trading (which seems to be a regular occurrence) but holding steady.
The 10yr Treasury yield at 3.55.