Mortgage Bonds are off to a great start in 2009, as the Fed begins its planned purchase of Mortgage Backed Securities. This process will continue gradually through June and should help buoy Mortgage Bond prices.
This week contains important economic data beginning today with total vehicle sales for November. Tomorrow we will see pending home sales, the ISM non-manufacturing report, and the minutes from the Fed’s Dec 16th meeting. Wednesday ADP will report on their projections for November employment, and Friday the Labor Department will release the “official” jobs data for November. This will be the main focus of the markets as current expectations are for job losses totaling 500,000 in the month of November with the unemployment rate spiking to 7.00%.
In other news, President-Elect Obama's new stimulus package will reportedly be worth $775 Billion and will include hundreds of Billions of dollars worth of tax breaks and credits for individuals and businesses. This is good news for the economy and should help with consumer confidence over time.
30-yr fixed Conforming base rate: 5.%
30-yr fixed Jumbo/Conforming base rate: 5.25%.
30-yr fixed FHA conforming base rate: 5.125%.