Forecast for the Week 
- The jam-packed economic calendar begins on Monday with Personal Income, Personal Spending, Personal Consumption Expenditures and Pending Home Sales.
- On Tuesday, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index and Consumer Confidence will be released.
- Wednesday brings the first of two key employment reports with the ADP National Employment Report.
- Weekly Initial Jobless Claims and the Chicago PMI will be delivered on Thursday.
- The week culminates with the March Jobs Report, which features Non-farm Payrolls and the Unemployment Rate. In addition, the ISM Index and Consumer Sentiment 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. In contrast, 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. When Bond prices 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 are 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 have held steady in response to post-Fed meeting speculation as well as the heartbreaking news of terrorist attacks in Brussels.
Chart: Fannie Mae 3.5% Mortgage Bond (Friday March 25, 2016)
The Mortgage Market Guide View…
Engaging Add-ins for PowerPoint Perfection
It’s been estimated there is an average of 350 PowerPoint presentations happening around the globe each second. And as anyone who’s ever endured one knows: seeing just bullet lists can be boring!
PowerPoint add-ins can spruce up your presentations, without slowing your prep time down. Here are a few to check out:
ShapeChef gives you access to a growing collection of graphics, charts and icons of a higher quality than PowerPoint’s default collection. Plus, you can create your own graphics to add to your library.
Web Video Player helps you add drama to a dull deck, letting you easily drop video from YouTube or Vimeo right into your slides.
Aploris takes the chore out of charts and works with either PowerPoint or Excel to offer a wide range of chart choices, including waterfall, Gantt, spider, bar and more. Charts are not only PC and Mac compatible, but are editable in both operating systems as well.
VisualBee takes a draft of your text content and automatically adds fully-editable and relevant templates, background images, graphics and transitions to create a more visually interesting deck.
G-Tools adds so many useful features to PowerPoint, you’ll wonder how you got along without it. From exporting slide notes to text, Excel or Word to exporting your entire deck into an Outlook email, this add-in automates or streamlines functions for graphics, videos, charts, triggers, pop-ups and many more.
Please feel free to pass these helpful tips along to your team, clients and colleagues.
Sources: Bloomberg, Inc., SkilledUp
Economic Calendar for the Week of March 28 – April 01
|
Date
|
ET
|
Economic Report
|
For
|
Estimate
|
Actual
|
Prior
|
Impact
|
| Mon. March 28 |
08:30
|
Personal Spending |
Feb
|
0.1%
|
0.5%
|
Moderate
|
|
| Mon. March 28 |
08:30
|
Personal Income |
Feb
|
0.1%
|
0.5%
|
Moderate
|
|
| Mon. March 28 |
08:30
|
Personal Consumption Expenditures and Core PCE |
Feb
|
0.2%
|
0.3%
|
HIGH
|
|
| Mon. March 28 |
08:30
|
Personal Consumption Expenditures and Core PCE |
YOY
|
NA
|
1.7%
|
HIGH
|
|
| Mon. March 28 |
10:00
|
Pending Home Sales |
Feb
|
1.1%
|
-2.5%
|
Moderate
|
|
| Tue. March 29 |
09:00
|
S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index |
Jan
|
5.7%
|
5.76%
|
Moderate
|
|
| Tue. March 29 |
09:00
|
S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index |
Jan
|
NA
|
5.7%
|
Moderate
|
|
| Tue. March 29 |
10:00
|
Consumer Confidence |
Mar
|
94.5
|
92.2
|
Moderate
|
|
| Wed. March 30 |
08:15
|
ADP National Employment Report |
Mar
|
196K
|
214K
|
HIGH
|
|
| Thu. March 31 |
08:30
|
Jobless Claims (Initial) |
3/26
|
265K
|
265K
|
Moderate
|
|
| Thu. March 31 |
09:45
|
Chicago PMI |
Mar
|
49.9
|
47.6
|
HIGH
|
|
| Fri. April 01 |
08:30
|
Non-farm Payrolls |
Mar
|
200K
|
242K
|
HIGH
|
|
| Fri. April 01 |
08:30
|
Hourly Earnings |
Mar
|
0.3%
|
-0.1%
|
HIGH
|
|
| Fri. April 01 |
08:30
|
Average Work Week |
Mar
|
34.5
|
34.4
|
HIGH
|
|
| Fri. April 01 |
08:30
|
Unemployment Rate |
Mar
|
4.9%
|
4.9%
|
HIGH
|
|
| Fri. April 01 |
10:00
|
ISM Index |
Mar
|
50.6
|
49.5
|
HIGH
|
|
| Fri. April 01 |
10:00
|
Consumer Sentiment Index (UoM) |
Mar
|
90.5
|
91.7
|
Moderate
|
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Mortgage Info By Michelle Wickett 