Commentary: The credit markets are breathing a sigh of relief that this week's $72 billion of Treasury debt supply is out of the way. Investors will likely spend the balance of the day unwinding hedges they had previously set in place to limit their downside price risk during the government's borrowing spree. If so, the mechanics of this process should allow mortgage interest rates to edge fractionally lower into the close today.
Looking ahead to next week, the economic calendar shows mortgage investors will be busy digesting some important data. January Retail Sales will hit the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday and will be followed by the January Housing Starts, Producer Price Index, and Industrial Production numbers on Wednesday. The week will round-out with Thursday morning's January Consumer Price Index and initial weekly jobless claims stats.
The upcoming battery of macro-economic mumbo-jumbo is expected to do little more than confirm what mortgage investors largely already know - the economy is continuing to experience a slow, uneven recovery from the depths of the Great Recession. If this assessment proves accurate, the stage will be set for mortgage interest rates to move sideways to slightly lower into the President's Day Holiday scheduled for Monday, February 21st.
THE MARKET IS ALWAYS RIGHT! . YOU AND I ARE SOME OF THE TIME
