Federal Reserve Chair, Janet Yellin, needs to take all this into consideration in her remarks soon.
November 16, 2016
By Richard Leong
U.S. homeowners (click here) and potential buyers are feeling the sting from the global bond market sell-off stemming from Donald Trump's stunning U.S. presidential victory as mortgage rates posted their biggest weekly rise in 3-1/2 years.
A measure of U.S. mortgage application activity fell to a 10-month low as 30-year mortgage rates jumped to their highest levels since January, data from the Mortgage Bankers Association released on Wednesday showed.
A deceleration in mortgage activity would not only be felt in the housing market, but also banks and other home-related industries, posing a drag on the overall economy....
The Federal Reserve Board had already decided on increasing rates as of December; that might not remain the plan given the bad news about home mortgage rates.
November 17, 2006
...“A rate hike in December (click here) is a done deal, barring a significant surprise in the next jobs numbers or in financial markets,” said Jonathan Wright, an economics professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a former Fed economist. “But the pace of firming is likely to continue to be glacial because the funds rate will then be within about a percentage point of the FOMC’s estimate of neutral,” he said, referring to the level of rates that neither spurs nor slows the economy....
The surprise has arrived.
