San Diego Mortgage Group

While benchmark Treasury yields moved slowly higher throughout the course of the week as our government auctioned debt to raise spending money, mortgage-backed securities managed to maintain a pretty consistent price range. After all was said and done and the auctions were behind us, mortgage rates were left basically unharmed, near the best levels of 2010. There was one more test to pass though: RETAIL SALES DATA. The Commerce Department released Retail Sales data at 8:30 am eastern this morning This report shows the monthly change in the total receipts at retail stores. Since consumer spending accounts for a large majority of GDP, market participants track retail sales to gauge economic growth. Last month’s report posted a 0.5% increase, a notable improvement from December’s disappointing…(read more)