Latest News Author: Jordan Reed

Last Week in Review: U.S. Economy showing solid growth. This past week, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported the U.S. economy, as defined by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), grew at a 2.6% rate in the fourth quarter of 2018. Economists and the markets were expecting 2.0% to 2.3%, so this was a nice upside surprise. […]

Last Week in Review: Minutes Revealed The highlight of this past week was the Fed Minutes from the January Fed Meeting. The Minutes are a detailed record of the Fed's monetary policy setting meeting, so the markets gain insight into the psyche of the Fed as it relates to interest rates, the economy and more. What […]

Last Week in Review: Canary in the coalmine. The financial markets are sensing a government shutdown and protracted trade war with China will be averted. This is good news and a reason why Stocks have continued to push higher and home loan rates have capped for the past few weeks. But last Thursday, Retail Sales was […]

Last Week in Review: Why home loan rates will stay low The Fed met this past week. As expected, they didn't hike rates and the Fed Statement was very dovish, suggesting that rate hikes will be off the table for most, if not all, of 2019. The Fed looked to muted inflation and slowing economies abroad […]

Last Week in Review: Rates touch 2019 highs this week Despite bond friendly news with the unresolved US/China trade relations and the ongoing government shutdown, rates actually touched 2019 highs midweek...this as stocks continue to move higher. Home loan rates have been on the rise ever since the last Jobs Report and Fed Speech back on […]

Last Week in Review: Stocks continue their winning ways. Home loan rates finished this week near unchanged and remain near 9-month lows -- so we have that going for us. Most of the week's news was pretty bond friendly, including Brexit uncertainty, ongoing Government shutdown, ongoing US/China trade dispute, low inflation and more. So why […]

Last Week in Review: No rate hikes in 2019. Who wins? Stocks continued to react positively to Fed Chair Powell's Jan 4th speech, where he essentially said, "we have your back"...meaning that the Fed will be flexible and may not raise rates at all in 2019.  There is an old saying in the financial markets - […]

Last Week in Review:Apple, Congress negate solid jobs numbers I-Phone maker, Apple, was a downer this week as the company announced a surprise weak sales and earnings forecast for the first quarter of 2019.  Stocks and interest rates fell on the bad news, concerned that Apple, the first big tech firm to report weak growth […]

Last Week in Review:Headline Risk Highlights Christmas Week. The financial markets had plenty to cheer about this week. On Wednesday, Stocks rallied a stunning 1,000+ points, enjoying their best one-day gain in history and then rallied over 800 points higher intraday on Thursday, erasing a huge midday loss. All in all, a great and welcome […]

Last Week in Review:Spring rates revisited. It was all about the Fed this past week. On Wednesday, they hiked the Fed Funds Rate by 25 basis points (0.25 percent). That rate affects short-term loans like auto and credit cards – what it doesn't affect are home loan rates.  Home loan rates actually improved to the […]