Data Helped, But Wild Cards Remain on Deck

Data Helped, But Wild Cards Remain on Deck

This morning's economic data wasn't immediately and obviously worthy of credit for the bond rally that followed, largely because the bond rally that followed was fairly small. Most of the day's gains were in place beforehand.  The data (lower ISM/employment, job openings, and job quits) helped keep bonds near the stronger end of the day's range, and thus, the stronger end of the 5 week range. There's more data on Wednesday, but the biggest wild card may be the long-awaited tariff announcement in the afternoon.

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Data Helped, But Wild Cards Remain on Deck

MBS & Treasury Markets
UMBS 5.5 100.03 -0.03 10YR 4.157% -0.005% 4/2/2025 5:00PM EST
ADP Employment 155k vs 105k f'cast, 77k prev This is fairly well within the realm of a modest to moderate beat in the ADP data, and thus not worth a big freak out on the part of the bond market. Yields were a bit lower in the overnight session (after battling back from initial weakness in Asia), and have only given back a fraction of those gains following the data. MBS are still up 3 ticks (.09) and 10yr yields are down 1.9bps at 4.144.    READ MORE
Today's Mortgage Rates
30YR Fixed 6.75% +0.04% 15YR Fixed 6.14% +0.02% 4/2/2025
While interest rates continue operating in a range that is generally flat and narrow over the past 5 weeks, it's also true that today's rates are on the lower edge of that range. Because there's not much of a gap between the highs and the lows, it didn't take a major move to facilitate today's little victory, but it is notable that we've seen 3 victories in a row now.  In other words, rates have fallen by a modest amount on each of the past 3 business days. To reemph...   READ MORE
Economic Calendar
Time Event Period Actual Forecast Prior
Wednesday, Apr 02
7:00AM Mar/28 MBA Refi Index Mar/28 710.4 752.4
7:00AM Mar/28 MBA Purchase Index Mar/28 158.2 155.8
8:15AM Mar ADP jobs (k) Mar 155K 105K 77K
9:00AM Mar Total Vehicle Sales (ml) Mar 17.77M 15.9M 16.0M
10:00AM Feb Factory orders mm (%) Feb 0.6% 0.5% 1.7%
10:30AM Mar/28 Crude Oil Inventory (ml) Mar/28 6.165M -2M -3.341M
11:30AM 17-Week Bill Auction 4.200% 4.200%
4:00PM Reciprocal Tariff Plan Announcement (%)
4:30PM Fed Kugler Speech
Thursday, Apr 03
7:30AM Mar Challenger layoffs (k) Mar 275.24K 172.017K
8:30AM Mar/22 Continued Claims (ml) Mar/22 1,903K 1860K 1856K
8:30AM Feb Trade Gap (bl) Feb -122.70B $-123.5B $-131.4B
8:30AM Mar/29 Jobless Claims (k) Mar/29 219K 225K 224K
9:45AM Mar S&P Global Composite PMI Mar 53.5 51.6
9:45AM Mar S&P Global Services PMI Mar 54.4 54.3 51
10:00AM Mar ISM Services Employment Mar 53.9
10:00AM Mar ISM Services Prices Mar 62.6
10:00AM Mar ISM Biz Activity Mar 54.4
10:00AM Mar ISM N-Mfg PMI Mar 53 53.5
12:30PM Fed Jefferson Speech
2:30PM Fed Cook Speech
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Heading into the week, market watchers knew (or thought they knew) that Friday's PCE inflation data had a chance to help or hurt interest rates more than any other economic report.  When PCE came out higher than expected on Friday morning, market watchers knew (or thought they knew) what would happen next.  But instead, the opposite happened.    Events like this se... READ MORE