Mortgage Rates Again Showing No Movement

Mortgage rates are moving sideways once again today.  We did see that the MBS market loose a little bit yesterday that might be affecting some fees charged by various banks that we deal with on the wholesale side, but not too much that I would say that they fell as we have again started another day of a tight range these rates have been in now for about six weeks.

This morning, the August ADP Private Payrolls data was strong, just beating out estimates and July was revised upward.  Weekly Mortgage Applications rose a bit led by Refinances and bringing up the rear was Purchases.

July Pending Home Sales came in at double the market expectations (1.3% vs est of 0.6%). On a YOY basis, they are up 1.4%. Manufacturing’s Chicago PMI was lower than forecasts but still well above the important 50.0 level which shows expansion on a monthly basis.

Of course, what will a day be without our Fedspeak report.  Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren (Voting member) said "A somewhat faster move to rate normalization may defer somewhat how quickly we achieve the dual mandate goals of full employment and price stability, but could reduce the risk of a larger divergence from the dual mandate in the next downturn".

What we have is August doldrums - no movements in the bond, mortgage or stock markets. Nothing appears to get traction in US markets. Better jobs gain, mortgage apps a little better - nothing. Yesterday the consumer confidence index was much better than what we have seen in over a year – but no movement was realized.  The US stock market has not moved in over a month.

Currently, at 11:00AM, we have the 10yr down a notch to 1.56% and MBS up a few show a positive 6BPS since the open.  If you are still floating, I do not anticipate much movement upward, as all eyes are turning to Friday morning’s NFP report.