The most recent bump was from Fed Chair Powell two weeks ago. It resulted in rates spiking to nearly 5%. Last week offered a bit of a lull and markets hoped that rates might finally be leveling off.
Now today, we have another bump from Fed Vice Chair Brainard. She’s typically more rate-friendly than other Fed members, but today she offered a blunt reminder that Fed bond buying would be winding down significantly more and significantly faster than last time.
With tomorrow bringing the release of the Minutes from the most recent Fed meeting (a more detailed account of all of the voices within the Fed as opposed to the carefully worded policy statement), markets are on edge about just how troublesome that conversation may have been for the rate outlook. Is the Fed planning more “bumps” and simply pacing themselves? That’s the concern pushed mortgage rates up and over 5.0% today. [30 year fixed 5.02%]
emphasis added
Wednesday:
• At 7:00 AM ET, The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.
• At 2:00 PM, FOMC Minutes, Minutes Meeting of March 15-16, 2022
On COVID (focus on hospitalizations and deaths):
| COVID Metrics | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Now | Week Ago |
Goal | ||
| Percent fully Vaccinated | 65.6% | — | ≥70.0%1 | |
| Fully Vaccinated (millions) | 217.9 | — | ≥2321 | |
| New Cases per Day3 | 25,537 | 25,664 | ≤5,0002 | |
| Hospitalized3 | 10,645 | 13,134 | ≤3,0002 | |
| Deaths per Day3 | 537 | 681 | ≤502 | |
| 1 Minimum to achieve “herd immunity” (estimated between 70% and 85%). 2my goals to stop daily posts, 37-day average for Cases, Currently Hospitalized, and Deaths 🚩 Increasing 7-day average week-over-week for Cases, Hospitalized, and Deaths ✅ Goal met. |
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Click on graph for larger image.
This graph shows the daily (columns) and 7-day average (line) of deaths reported.
New cases, hospitalizations and deaths are all declining.
Average daily deaths are the lowest since early August 2021.