Interest Rate Hike Cautious approach, Private Payrolls, Loan Application Volume fell
March 30, 2016
Wednesday – March 30
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen spoke at the Economic Club of New York yesterday regarding on monetary policy here in the U.S. Ms. Yellen said that given the weak global economy and low inflation in the U.S., the Fed will take a cautious approach to raising interest rates in 2016. Ms. Yellen did say that if economic activity strengthens, the central bank “could readily raise rates to stabilize the economy.” Her remarks sparked a rally in global Stock markets which has continued here in the U.S. on Wednesday.
In the first of two job related reports this week, ADP reported that private payrolls in March rose 200,000, just above the 196,000 expected. February was revised lower to 205,000 from 214,000. The data comes ahead of Friday’s government Jobs Report for March. Despite a weak global economy, U.S. job creation continues to add jobs at a robust pace. ADP said, small businesses added 86,000 jobs; midsize ones, 75,000, and large companies, 39,000.
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports that its Market Composite Index, a measure of total mortgage loan application volume, fell 1% in the latest week. The data comes despite low mortgage rates and an uptick in eligible borrowers. The refinance index decreased 3% from the previous week and now makes up 52.4% of total applications. The MBA went on to say that the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) slightly increased to 3.94% from 3.93%.
