News was light this week.
On Wednesday the minutes from the January FOMC meeting were released. Although the market had already assumed that there would be no change in the prime rate, the notes did not reveal anything new in the thinking of the Board members.
Remember that good news is bad news for rates, so Friday’s news was more interest rate negative as the good economy is bad for the bond market investors.
Here’s the rationale, if there are signs of inflation and therefore interest rates going up, why would they lock up their money at current rates if they can do better by waiting? They usually won’t – they wait.
Durable Goods for December came in at 1.2% and excluded Transportation which was -0.1%.
The weekly jobless claims were down a big number at 23,000.
The net result is rates remained the same this week.
