October 29, 2024 United States: Storms and Strike Will Complicate Last Jobs Report Before Fed Meeting, Election Friday’s employment report is the last the Federal Reserve will see before its policy meeting next week. But the data will be tough to parse. Flooding and power disruptions from Hurricanes Helene and Milton that crippled many business
October 28, 2024 United States: Next Hurdle for Treasuries Is Whether US Keeps Debt Sales Stable With its confidence in future interest-rate cuts shaken by US economic resilience, the Treasuries market is also facing doubts about how much longer the US government can avoid ramping up its borrowing. Even as the US continues to clock historically
October 25, 2024 United States: Economists Boost US Growth, Spending Forecasts into Early 2025 Economists nudged up quarterly US economic growth projections through early next year on more sanguine views of consumer demand and maintained views that limited inflation will keep the Federal Reserve on a path toward lower borrowing costs. The slight upward adjustments in gross
October 24, 2024 United States: US Treasuries Rebound as Market Takes Break from Days of Losses The sharp selloff in Treasuries abated on Thursday, with US bonds rallying alongside European peers, after three straight days of declines. While an unexpected drop in initial jobless claims curbed the day’s gains, yields remained lower across the curve, led
October 23, 2024 United States: US Mortgage Activity Gauges Drop to Lowest Levels Since August US mortgage applications for both home purchases and refinancing dropped last week to the lowest levels since August, hobbled by a recent surge in mortgage rates. Mortgage Bankers Association’s gauge of home purchases declined 5.1% in the week ended Oct. 18,
October 22, 2024 United States: Bonds Slump Globally as Traders Rethink Fed’s Rate Cut Path Bonds extended losses as investors mulled the prospect of slower US interest-rate cuts, a trend that risks upending debt positions everywhere. The selloff pushed yields on two-year Treasuries higher by as much as two basis points on Tuesday, while 10-year
October 18, 2024 United States: US Housing Starts Ease on Decline in Multifamily Construction US housing starts eased in September as a drop in multifamily projects outweighed a pickup in construction of single-family dwellings. Housing starts decreased 0.5% last month to a 1.35 million annualized rate, according to government data released Friday, after a big
October 17, 2024 United States: Fed Stuck on Six-Week Data Cycle When Investors Want a Forecast For the past several months, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has hammered home the idea that interest-rate decisions will be made meeting by meeting based on incoming data. The Fed publishes a summary of every policymaker’s quarterly economic forecasts,
October 16, 2024 United States: US Mortgage Rates Climb to 6.52%, Highest Since Early August US mortgage rates rose sharply for a second straight week, reaching the highest level since early August while prompting steep declines in both home-purchase and refinance activity. The contract rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage rose 16 basis points to
October 15, 2024 United States: Inflation, GDP Would Be Same Under Harris or Trump, Survey Says The outlook for inflation and growth in the US would be roughly the same whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump wins the election, though economists in a Bloomberg survey give the vice president the edge on the economy overall.
