Thursday:
• At 8:30 AM ET, The initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released. The consensus is for 253 thousand initial claims, down from 259 thousand the previous week.
From Matthew Graham at Mortgage News Daily: Mortgage Rates Higher Despite Help From The Fed
Mortgage rates were higher to end the day, but not as high as they might have been without the Fed Statement. The day began with a series of strong economic reports. The ADP Employment Report was much stronger than expected, as was the employment component of the ISM Manufacturing report. Investors connect those dots to increased risk of a strong number in this Friday’s all-important Employment Situation Report (the big jobs report). … The Fed helped push rates back in the other direction this afternoon. While there were numerous minor changes in their verbiage, none of them did anything to accelerate the rate hike timeline or to threaten the Fed’s current policy of reinvesting the interest it earns on its portfolio. That’s one of the key reasons that rates are still historically low. With that, multiple lenders were able to improve rate sheets this afternoon. The net effect was still a slight move higher for closing costs, but the damage would have been much worse without the Fed.
emphasis added
Here is a table from Mortgage News Daily: