Daily Commentary by Larry Baer: The
developing political stalemate in Greece and growing concerns about Spain's
ailing banking sector continues to fuel strong global
"flight-to-quality" demand for U.S. dollar denominated assets likely
Treasury debt obligations and agency eligible mortgage-backed securities
-- a phenomenon that is almost
single-handedly supporting the near-term prospects for steady to perhaps
fractionally lower mortgage interest rates.
The Treasury Department is set to sell $24
billion of 10-year notes today. The
auction will conclude at 1:00 p.m. ET and I'll provide the result on my website
as quickly as possible thereafter. This
event is unlikely to influence the trend trajectory of mortgage interest rates
one way or the other.
As they do every Wednesday, the Mortgage
Bankers of America have released their Mortgage Application Survey figures for
the week ended May 4th.
Overall application traffic rose 1.7%.
Purchase money demand posted a 3.4% gain - extending its three-week
winning streak. Refinance requests rose
1.3%, the first improvement in this component of the index since early
April. Refinance applications accounted
for 72% of all applications taken during the week and 70% of this month's
anticipated total loan volume.
The contract rate for 30-year fixed rate
conforming mortgages finished at 4.01%, down 4 basis-points from the prior
week, down 9 basis-points from its mark from four-weeks ago and down 74 basis
points from the year ago level.
THE
MARKET IS ALWAYS RIGHT! . YOU AND I ARE SOME OF THE TIME
