Mortgage Marketing Blogs

International securities transactions and the Bank of Canada's monetary policy report highlight today's Canadian economic releases as U.S. markets receive jobless claims and housing starts, followed by the Philadelphia Fed's manufacturing report for July.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits in the United States rose much less than expected to 366k in the week ending July 12, following a slightly revised 348k in the previous week. Continuing claims fell back 81k to 3.122 million for the week ending July 5, the Department of Labor reported Thursday.

The 18k rise in initial claims follows a drop of 56k in the previous week's survey.

Due to a change in the housing code of New York City, U.S. housing starts came in above expectations at 1066k in June, a month- over-month rise of 9.1%, according to data released from the U.S. Department of Commerce on Tuesday morning. The consensus was looking for a decline to a level of 960k.

The previous month's 975k was revised to a level of 977k.

"New York City enacted a new set of construction codes effective for permits authorized as of...

Delivering comments at the FDIC's Minority Depository Institutions National Conference in Chicago, Fed Governor Randall Kroszner said the Fed's new rules on mortgages would alleviate pressures in nearly the entire subprime sector and some other alternative mortgage markets.

"At the core of our program, we have implemented a series of web-based modules designed to assist banks in addressing three distinctive development stages...

Fed fund futures showed a slightly heightened risk of a rate hike in 2008 by the Federal Reserve, following a higher-than- expected CPI print for June on Wednesday.

Markets were subsequently forecasting a 44% chance that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) would hold rates at 2.00% at the Dec. 16 meeting. On Tuesday, markets had priced in a 49.8% chance that same scenario would unfold. Conversely...

Following a lower-than-expected level of housing starts and permits in the May report, plus a major downward revision in the month before, economists are expecting June's housing starts and permits figures from the Department of Commerce to continue declining.

The minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) June 24-25 meeting show that FOMC Board Members agreed upside risks to inflation had increased and generally agreed downside risks to growth had diminished. Most members thought the current 2.00% target rate was appropriate but that risks to inflation may initiate a reassessment.

A report from Wells Fargo and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) suggests that homebuilders were even more pessimistic in July as the housing market index fell two points to 16, creating a new historic low in the 22-year index.

Another action-packed day follows Tuesday's excitement as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke delivers the second of his two- day annual testimony, this time to the House of Representatives. In terms of data, markets will receive Canadian manufacturing shipments along with U.S. CPI and industrial production figures followed by the all important weekly oil inventories for the week ending July 11.

The seasonally adjusted U.S. Consumer Price Index rose more than expected on both fronts, as the core rate ticked up 0.3% (0.323%) in June, contributing to a 2.4% year-over-year change, and total inflation rose 1.1% (1.056%) in the month and 5.0% on the year, according to data released by the U.S. Labor Department on Wednesday.