Last week was a short week with the bond market closed for Thanksgiving as well as shorten days on both Wednesday and Friday. With the shorten week, the market was busy with the various economic reports being released as well as 3 Treasury auctions and the Federal Open Market Committee releasing their last meeting’s minutes.
To top all of that off, on Thanksgiving Day, news started to leak out that Dubai World has asked for extensions on their debt repayment schedule on their $80-$90 Billion debt.
So how is this all affecting the bond market? It’s holding.
Existing Home Sales was up and housing inventories are down to 7 month supply, the lowest in 2 1/2 years. This is probably most likely due to the First Time Homebuyers Tax Credit that was set to expired today. New Home Sales came in higher as well and their inventories are down to a 6.7 month supply, the lowest in 3 years. And Case-Shilling reported the fifth consecutive month of increased home values. Though these increases are small, the trend is slowly moving up.
The other economic reports, GDP, Initial Jobless Claims, Core Personal Consumer Expenditures and Consumer Confidence came in at or as expected. The only economic report that was down was Durable Goods.
The Treasury auctions of the 2-Year, 5-Year, and 7-Year for last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, respectively, were well received.
For this week, it will be another busy week. Chicago PMI comes out today and the Employments Report on Wednesday, both of these can move the market. Then on Friday, we have four employment type of reports, Average Work Week, Hourly Earnings, Non-Farm Payroll, and the Unemployment Rate.
As each of these reports come out, I’ll report on them and how they have affected the market as well as the continuing story on the Dubai World and their debt repayment schedule. This one has the possibly to affect all of us since we live in a global world and 70 banks have a vested interest in how this will be repaid.
Along with this, Federal Chairman Ben Bernanke will be talking to Senator Dobbs’ committee. Congress wants more control over the Federal Monetary Policy. I’ll weigh in on this and what it can mean to us in the future.
In this week’s holiday MMG Week in Review, there is a great video on the Power of Attitude.
You can also check out the Daily Rate Lock Advisory each day. This report normally comes out around 10am.
And as always, I will report daily on twitter @mmtgsolutions on the mortgage interest rates and what to expect for the day. If one of these reports moves the market in a significant manner, I’ll write about it here.
Please remember, I welcome your comments to this and my other posts. I do hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and this coming week is one that is inspiring.
Betsy Moore
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