Thursday: PPI, Unemployment Claims, Consumer Sentiment

From Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily: Rates Move Deeper Into 2017 Lows After Trump Comments

Mortgage rates continued lower today, bringing them even deeper into new lows for 2017.  Bond markets (which underlie rate movement) were already doing just fine this morning, but got a boost from Trump's comments on the strength of the US Dollar in the afternoon.  Specifically, Trump said the dollar is "too strong."  The implication is that the administration will do what it can to promote a weaker dollar, and such efforts are seen simultaneously putting downward pressure on rates.

Whereas lenders were more evenly split between 4.0% and 4.125% yesterday, the former now enjoys a small majority.  That means that 4.0% is now the most prevalently-quoted conventional 30yr fixed rate for top tier scenarios and that some of the more aggressive lenders are quoting 3.875%.
emphasis added

Thursday:
• At 8:30 AM ET, The initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released.  The consensus is for 243 thousand initial claims, up from 234 thousand the previous week.

• Also at 8:30 AM, The Producer Price Index for March from the BLS. The consensus is for no change in PPI, and a 0.2% increase in core PPI.

• At 10:00 AM, University of Michigan's Consumer sentiment index (preliminary for April). The consensus is for a reading of 97.0, up from 96.9 in March.