Forecast for the Week 

A busy week of reports is ahead, with news on housing, manufacturing, consumer sentiment, U.S. growth and inflation.

• The week starts and ends with a measure of how the consumer is feeling with Tuesday’s Consumer Confidence Report and Friday’s Consumer Sentiment Index.
• There’s a double dose of housing news on Tuesday, with the Case Shiller Index and New Home Sales. Plus, look for Pending Home Sales on Wednesday.
• We’ll get a sense of how the economy is doing with Wednesday’s Durable Goods Orders, which measures orders for products used for an extended period of time, and Thursday’s Gross Domestic Product, the biggest picture of economic activity.
• Also on Thursday, Weekly Initial Jobless Claims will be reported.
• Ending the week, Friday brings Personal Consumption Expenditures, the Fed’s favorite measure of inflation, along with Personal Income and Spending and the ISM Index.

Remember: Weak economic news normally causes money to flow out of Stocks and into Bonds, helping Bonds and home loan rates improve, while strong economic news normally has the opposite result. The chart below shows Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), which are the type of Bond that home loan rates are based on.

When you see these Bond prices moving higher, it means home loan rates are improving — and when they are moving lower, home loan rates are getting worse.

To go one step further — a red “candle” means that MBS worsened during the day, while a green “candle” means MBS improved during the day. Depending on how dramatic the changes were on any given day, this can cause rate changes throughout the day, as well as on the rate sheets we start with each morning.

As you can see in the chart below, Bonds and home loan rates remain steady near record best levels. I’ll continue to monitor them closely.

The Mortgage Market Guide View… 

Best Days and Times for Posting to Social Media

More than nine out of ten businesses spend six or more hours online each week maintaining a presence on social media. And while you probably already know the benefits of social media–better engagement with your market, better website traffic, improved sales–you might not realize that some days (and times!) are better than others for posting to social media.

Social media analytics firm Socialbakers showed Facebook posts achieve 50% of their total reach within 30 minutes of being posted. In other words, half of all the people who will see your post have seen it within the first half-hour after you post it. Not only that, by the time 90 minutes have elapsed, your average post reaches less than 2% of total audience for the next seven hours before it drops off completely.

That’s why timing your posts properly is the best strategy. Here are the best days and times to post according to current research from Social Caffeine:

Twitter BEST: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Thursday WORST: 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. Avoid after 3 p.m. Friday and weekends

Facebook BEST: 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., peaking on Wednesdays at 3 p.m. WORST: 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., avoiding weekends

LinkedIn BEST: 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. OR 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday WORST: 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., avoid Monday and Friday

Pinterest BEST: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. or 8 p.m. to 1 a.m., peaking on Saturday morning WORST: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and late afternoons

Economic Calendar for the Week of February 25 – March 01

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