Forecast for the Week

Economic reports don’t begin until Thursday, with the end of the week bringing key reports.

• On Thursday, look for Weekly Initial Jobless Claims as well as November’s Retail Sales.
• On Friday, the Producer Price Index will reveal if there are inflation pressures at the wholesale level.
• Also on Friday, the Consumer Sentiment Index for December will be released.

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 on which home loan rates are based.

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, Mortgage Bonds declined in recent days but home loan rates remain near 18-month lows.

Chart: Fannie Mae 3.5% Mortgage Bond (Friday December 5, 2014)

The Mortgage Market Guide View…

Are Your Goals Too Easy?

Mark Murphy, author of “HARD Goals: The Secret to Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be,” says getting from where you are to where you want to be in your career, business and life is more about attempting a difficult target—even if you miss—than attempting an easy target and succeeding.

“An appropriately difficult goal is going to require you to learn,” Murphy says. “It’s going to stretch your brain, excite some neurons, amp you up and awaken your senses.”

Murphy’s leadership training consultancy studied nearly 5,000 workers across a wide field of businesses, and what he discovered is that HARD Goals engage the brain in a way that is totally different from the goals most people set. What’s a HARD Goal? The acronym stands for:

• Heartfelt: You’re emotionally attached to it.
• Animated: You’ve got a vision of its accomplishment.
• Required: You feel such a sense of urgency that you must act now.
• Difficult: You must be challenged by it.

According to Murphy’s research, people with HARD Goals are up to 75 percent more fulfilled than people with easy ones. But how can you know if the goal you’ve set is too hard—or too easy? Take each of your goals and measure them against your comfort zone. You will notice there are five possibilities:

1. The goal is totally within your comfort zone, and feels easy.
2. The goal is “pretty much” within your comfort zone, but not exciting.
3. The goal is a little outside your comfort zone, and makes you nervous.
4. The goal is definitely outside your comfort zone, and makes you uncomfortable.
5. The goal is way outside your comfort zone, and causes anxiety.

While No. 1 Goals are probably only items on your daily to-do list, and No. 5 Goals are probably those you aren’t meant to achieve, it’s the No. 4 Goals you should pay the most attention to. Goals that take you into uncharted territory but don’t leave you paralyzed by anxiety are the ones that will give you the most challenge and satisfaction.

Try this simple analysis of your goals and see!

Please feel free to pass these great goal-setting tips along to your team, clients and colleagues!

Source: SUCCESS Magazine, Amazon.com

Economic Calendar for the Week of December 8 – December 12

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