The Federal Reserve chairman this week doused any hope homebuyers had that mortgage rates would soften anytime soon. Instead, rates jumped above 7% after Jerome Powell said inflation was taking longer to come down to the Fed’s intended target, a sign that any rate cuts investors were betting on may not arrive soon this year
The March retail sales report surprised to the upside, coming in at 0.7% from the month prior versus the anticipated 0.4% gain. Roth MKM’s Chief Economist and Macro Strategist Michael Darda joins the Morning Brief to discuss the implications of this report for the Federal Reserve’s rate cut plans, calling it a “body blow to
Homebuyers hoping to capture a lower mortgage rate on the back of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates in 2024 may have to wait a little longer. The housing market, still rebounding from COVID-induced inflationary pressures and the Fed’s rate hikes aimed at stabilization, was eyeing relief from three projected policy adjustments later this year.
Fed officials Loretta Mester and Mary Daly signaled Tuesday that three rate cuts are still likely for 2024, with Mester hinting that a cut in June is a possibility. “I don’t want to rule that out,” said Mester, who is president of the Cleveland Fed. Mester noted the inflation picture had not “changed very much”
By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Dow and S&P 500 slipped on Monday, the first session after the biggest weekly percentage gains for the indexes this year, as investors assessed the likely path of interest rates from the Federal Reserve ahead of key inflation data due later in this holiday-shortened week. Last week,
Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said Monday that three rate cuts in 2024 are “in line with my thinking,” and that the fundamental story about falling inflation has not changed despite hotter-than-expected readings in January and February. “It seems hard for me to view that the seven months previous to the start of this year
Mortgage rates surged closer to 7% this week, a blow to hopeful homebuyers this spring. The rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage increased to 6.87% from 6.74% the week prior, according to Freddie Mac. Rates tilted higher as inflation remained hotter than expected, leading to the Fed putting off any potential rate cuts until summer.
(Bloomberg) — Asset managers are turbocharging bearish wagers on the Australian currency amid views the central bank is more likely to cut rates than raise. Real money funds held a near-record short Aussie dollar position of 99,366 contracts as of Feb. 27, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That’s even after the