Forecast for the Week 

The second half of the week heats up with several key reports.

• Economic reports kick off on Wednesday with Retail Sales.
• As usual, Thursday brings Weekly Initial Jobless Claims, as well as the wholesale-measuring Producer Price Index, the first of the week’s inflation reports.
• There’s more inflation news on Friday with the Consumer Price Index. Also look for Empire Manufacturing and Consumer Sentiment to conclude the week.

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 worsened last week as Stocks hit record highs. But Bonds and home loan rates remain near record best levels and I will continue to watch their movement closely

The Mortgage Market Guide View… 

New Report Says Blogs More Influential than Facebook, Twitter

Have you been wondering how to get more attention from your marketplace? Are you trying to find new ways to bring in more business? Well, if you haven’t already started blogging, you may want to give it another look.

Technorati Media, one of the largest social media ad networks, recently released their 2013 Digital Influence Report–a survey including over 6,000 influencers, 1,200 consumers and 150 other top marketers–revealing when it comes to making purchase decisions, blogs are the third most influential resource (31 percent!), second only to retail and brand sites.

The survey participants said blogs rank higher than Twitter for shaping their opinions and higher than Facebook for motivating purchasing decisions. The reason? Bloggers tend to be more honest with their opinions and are perceived as less self-serving than other sources.

Here are four ways to be influential with your online community:

Be honest. People turn to blogs because they want honest opinions and professional advice. Don’t be afraid to be yourself or use some personality both with your topics and your writing style.

Focus on providing value. Building strong relationships with your followers is easy when you provide great value for them. Relationships are really a by-product of providing great content and a sense of community.

Be the go-to. Becoming a local guru is neither difficult nor undesirable. If you can establish yourself as a trusted source of information, people will follow you for your specific advice…and so will the business.

Get synergy. Don’t ignore Facebook or Twitter, but don’t rely on them for the full job. When you provide compelling content on your blog, use social media to amplify the content. The key to influencing your customers on Facebook is to share things that generate likes, comments, and interaction. Blog posts are a great way to do just that!

Economic Calendar for the Week of March 11 – March 15

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