Archive for Ben Bernanke
Mortgage Rates Touch 2010 Lows
Posted by: | CommentsPosted To: Mortgage Rate Watch
Mortgage rates didn't make much progress in either direction yesterday despite some bond market friendly economic data and a successful Treasury note auction. Mortgage backed securities traded in a tight range which prevented most lenders from passing along improved mortgage rates. The economic calendar started this morning with weekly Jobless Claims. This report provides three measures of the labor market: Initial Jobless Claims : totals the number of Americans who filed for first time unemployment benefits Continued Claims : totals the number of Americans who continue to file for benefits due to an inability to find a new job Extended Benefits : totals the number of Americans who have exhausted their traditional benefits and are now receiving emergency benefits While an increase in jobless…(read more)
Short Term Lock/Float Bias and the Week Ahead
Posted by: | CommentsPosted To: Mortgage Rate Watch
Mortgage rates rose, stabilized, then rose again and again and again on Friday last week. That's a three day skid of rising rates. Economic data wasn't necessarily great, but it wasn't bad either. The Federal Reserve did hike the rate at which they lend emergency funds to banks in need. While this event did cause a commotion and alter market sentiment, the net effect was not seen as a reason behind increases in mortgage rates. The Federal Reserve's planned exit from the secondary mortgage market has also played a minimal role in rising rates. The general explanation behind rising mortgage rates has been a slow and steady uptick in benchmark Treasury yields. Because mortgage-backed security yields track the direction of benchmark Treasury yields, mortgage rates have been generally…(read more)
The Week Ahead: Did Employment Grow in December?
Posted by: | CommentsPosted To: MND NewsWire
Well ahead of the market open investors are busy thanks to comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke over the weekend. Noting widespread criticism that the housing bubble was inflated largely as a result of monetary policy that was too accommodative in the early 2000’s, Bernanke provided a synopsis of the arguments and the data, concluding that that policy was appropriate and that counter-arguments are “weak.” “Economists who have investigated the issue have generally found that, based on historical relationships, only a small portion of the increase in house prices earlier this decade can be attributed to the stance of U.S. monetary policy,” Bernanke said. “Regulatory and supervisory policies, rather than monetary policies, would have been more…(read more)