| It was another tough week for stocks and interest rates. The March Consumer Price Index was released on Wednesday. It showed that consumer prices rose 3.5% year-over-year, up from 3.2% year-over-year in February, and 3.1% in January. Inflation was trending down at the end of 2023 but has begun to trend higher. That added fuel to last week’s jobs report which showed that the country added almost double the number of jobs that analysts expected in March and the unemployment rate dipped again, leading investors to feel that the economy was heating up. More people working leads to higher consumer confidence and more people spending, which fuels inflation. Mortgage interest rates and bond yields have risen steadily to their highest levels since November after beginning the year at their lowest levels. Oil prices rose as well over the past two weeks. Experts fear that a conflict between Israel and Iran could cause oil prices to rise another 20%.
Stock markets – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the week at 37,983.24, down 2.4% from 38,904.04 last week. It is up 0.8% year-to-date. The S&P 500 closed the week at 5,123.41, down 1.6% from 5,204.34 last week. The S&P is up 7.4% year-to-date. The Nasdaq closed the week at 16,175.09, down 0.4% from 16,248.52 last week. It is up 7.8% year-to-date. U.S. Treasury bond yields – The 10-year treasury bond closed the week yielding 4.50%, up from 4.39% last week. The 30-year treasury bond yield ended the week at 4.61%, up from 4.54% last week. We watch bond yields because mortgage rates follow bond yields. Mortgage rates – Every Thursday Freddie Mac publishes interest rates based on a survey of mortgage lenders throughout the week. The Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Survey reported that mortgage rates for the most popular loan products as of April 11, 2024, were as follows: The 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 6.88%, up from 6.82% last week. The 15-year fixed was 6.16%, up from 6.06% last week. The graph below shows the trajectory of mortgage rates over the past year.
Freddie Mac was chartered by Congress in 1970 to keep money flowing to mortgage lenders in support of homeownership and rental housing. Their mandate is to provide liquidity, stability, and affordability to the U.S. Home sales data for March will be released next week by the National Association of Realtors and the California Association of Realtors. We have that data tabulated now and you can view that data for your city or zip code at RodeoRe.com. Have a great weekend! |
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