Market Movement Monday

Mortgage rates trended downward this week, touching some of the lowest levels in the past 12 months. Retail sales rose marginally in October. The housing market sentiment index surged to another record high. Mortgage application submissions for home purchases climbed but refinance submissions dropped. Housing starts jumped while building permits remained unchanged. Initial jobless claims increased, but continuing jobless claims decreased. Existing home sales reached the highest annual rate since 2006.

• FHFA issues Final Capital Rule for Fannie and Freddie. Read Now >>

• How a COVID-19 vaccine could impact mortgage rates and the housing market. Read Now >>

• Neil Hennessy talks housing demand going forward. Watch Now >>

• In October, retail sales rose slightly by 0.3%. The slight rise in sales marked the sixth consecutive month of gains and was largely due to Amazon Prime Day.

• In October, the home builder sentiment index reached a high of 85, but in November it jumped five points to reach a new record high of 90.

• For the week ending 11/13, mortgage application submissions saw a composite decrease of 0.3%. Though purchase application submissions increased 4%, refinance submissions dropped 2%. Year-over-year, however, refinance submissions were up 98%.

• This 4.9% increase in month-over-month housing starts primarily resulted from a 6.4% gain in single-family starts. Multifamily starts dropped by 3.2% month-over-month, and building permits remained unchanged at a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.55 million.

• Initial jobless claims rose for the first time in over a month with a 31,000 increase during the week ending 11/14. Though economists at MarketWatch had expected total jobless claims to drop to 710,000, they rose to a seasonally adjusted rate of 742,000. Continuing jobless claims fell by 429,000 during the week ending 11/7, reaching a seasonally adjusted rate of 6.37 million.

• Existing home sales jumped 4.3% from September to October – reaching an annual gain of 26.6%, or 6.85 million units, seasonally adjusted. This climb in sales marked the highest annual pace recorded in 14 years and came close to the highest annual pace ever – 7.1 million units.

• Case-Shiller home price index

• Consumer confidence index

• MBA applications

• Jobless claims

• GDP

• New home sales

• Consumer sentiment index

• Personal income

• Consumer spending

• Core inflation

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 23, 2020