by Calculated Risk on 5/09/2016 08:18:00 PM

Tuesday:
• At 9:00 AM, NFIB Small Business Optimism Index for April.

• At 10:00 AM, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for March from the BLS. Job openings decreased in February to 5.445 million from 5.604 million in January. The number of job openings were up 6% year-over-year, and Quits were up 9% year-over-year.

• Also at 10:00 AM, Monthly Wholesale Trade: Sales and Inventories for March. The consensus is for a 0.3% increase in inventories.

From Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily: Mortgage Rates Steady Near 3-Year Lows

Mortgage rates moved sideways today, taking them one step closer to officially claiming the title of "3 year lows." Tomorrow marks the three year anniversary of the Wall Street Journal article that began the early days of the 'taper tantrum'--the jarring move higher in rates that resulted from markets coming to terms with the end of the Fed's asset purchases.

While rates aren't as low today as they had been before the taper tantrum, the current rate environment is excellent in its own right. Apart from being fairly close to the all-time lows seen in 2012-2013, today's low rates exist without any Fed asset purchases and without any risk that the Fed will surprise the world with a shift toward stricter monetary policy. In fact, if there's any risk for financial markets, it's that the Fed will continue to back away from their rate-hike campaign that began with the first and only hike in nearly a decade this past December.

Most lenders are right in line with rates seen on Friday. The most prevalent conventional 30yr fixed quote continues hovering around 3.625% with more than a few lenders already back down to 3.5%.
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