Rate Lock Advisory

Monday, December 10th

Monday’s bond market has opened up slightly with stocks mixed and little else to drive trading. The Dow is currently down 217 points, but the Nasdaq is nearly unchanged. The bond market is currently up 2/32 (2.85%), which with strength late Friday should improve this morning’s mortgage rates by approximately .125 - .250 of a discount point over Friday’s early pricing. Many lenders improved pricing before closing Friday, so if yours did revise lower, you should see less of an improvement this morning.

2/32

Bonds

30 yr - 2.85%

217

Dow

24,171

0

NASDAQ

6,969

Mortgage Rate Trend

Trailing 90 Days - National Average

  • 30 Year Fixed
  • 15 Year Fixed
  • 5/1 ARM

Indexes Affecting Rate Lock

Medium

Unknown

Stock Influences

There is nothing scheduled for today that is relevant to mortgage rates. The rest of the week brings us the release of four pieces of economic data that may influence mortgage rates in addition to a couple of Treasury auctions. We also need to watch stock movement because as we have seen recently, volatility in stocks can heavily affect bond trading and mortgage rates. Generally speaking, stock losses help boost bond prices, leading to lower mortgage rates.

High

Unknown

Producer Price Index (PPI)

November's Producer Price Index (PPI) will start this week’s activities at 8:30 AM ET tomorrow morning. It shows inflationary pressures at the producer level of the economy. There are two portions of the index that are used- the overall reading and the core data reading. The core data is the more important of the two because it excludes more volatile food and energy prices, giving a more stable reading for analysts to consider. If it reveals stronger than expected readings, indicating that inflationary pressures are rising faster than thought, the bond market will probably react negatively. That would drive mortgage rates higher. If we see in-line or weaker than expected numbers, the bond market should respond by pushing mortgage rates slightly lower. Analysts are expecting no change in the overall index and a 0.1% rise in the core data.

---

Unknown

None

Overall, Wednesday is a good candidate for most important day of the week due to consumer-level inflation data and the 10-year Treasury Note auction, but Friday could be pretty active also. The calmest day may be Thursday. However, stocks can be more unpredictable than bonds. With them having such a heavy influence on the bond and mortgage markets lately, any day may be active. Therefore, it would be extremely prudent to maintain contact with your mortgage professional if still floating an interest rate and closing in the near future.

Float / Lock Recommendation

If I were considering financing/refinancing a home, I would.... Lock if my closing was taking place within 7 days... Lock if my closing was taking place between 8 and 20 days... Float if my closing was taking place between 21 and 60 days... Float if my closing was taking place over 60 days from now... This is only my opinion of what I would do if I were financing a home. It is only an opinion and cannot be guaranteed to be in the best interest of all/any other borrowers.