Industry News
Mortgage Industry News
Retail Sales Post Strong Gains
03/12/2010
Despite bad weather in February, Retail sales posted strong gains. Bonds are down; stocks and commodities are up. Yesterday, the Fed announced that they purchased another $10B in mortgage-backed securities in the last week, bringing the total to $1.225T. With the program scheduled to cease at the end of the month, that leaves the Fed with a little under 3 weeks to purchase an additional $25B. Right now, the futures market is pricing in a 90% chance that the Fed keeps rates somewhere between 0% and .25% through June 23rd, 2010. Currently, the Ten Year yield is at 3.695% (3.73% yesterday) and the 2-10 yield spread is at 278bps, flattening 2bps since yesterday morning.
