Forecast for the Week
- Pending Home Sales will be delivered Monday.
- Manufacturing data releases start on Monday with Durable Goods Orders. The Chicago PMI will be released Tuesday, followed by the ISM Index Wednesday.
- The second estimate for first quarter Gross Domestic Product will be watched by investors as well as the Fed when it is announced on Tuesday.
- Consumer data is plentiful with the release of Consumer Confidence Tuesday, as well as Personal Income, Personal Spending and the inflation-reading Personal Consumption Expenditures Wednesday.
- The Fed’s Beige Book is due out Wednesday.
- As usual, weekly Initial Jobless Claims will be reported on Thursday.
- The non-manufacturing ISM Services Index will be released Friday.
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 prices have seesawed in recent weeks and rebounded. Despite recent volatility, home loan rates are still in attractive territory.
Chart: Fannie Mae 3.5% Mortgage Bond (Friday, February 24, 2017)
The Mortgage Market Guide View…
How to Protect Your Rewards Points and Miles From Theft
Monitor your loyalty rewards as you would your bank accounts.
By Lisa Gerstner, Kiplinger.com
Kiplinger’s interviewed Barry Kirk, who creates and consults on consumer loyalty programs for Maritz Motivation Solutions. Read excerpts from their interview below.
Yahoo recently disclosed a 2013 breach that exposed personal information from more than 1 billion user accounts. Are loyalty rewards accounts vulnerable to hacking, too?
Consumers tend not to see loyalty accounts as housing sensitive data. But points and miles are currencies that have a real dollar value, with $48 billion worth at stake among U.S. consumers, according to an industry study conducted a few years ago. That number is probably significantly higher now. Criminals recognize that the store of value sitting in unprotected loyalty programs is ripe for the picking.
How do crooks steal points and miles?
Criminals attempt to hack loyalty accounts daily. Sometimes they focus on a single account to, say, exchange rewards for airline tickets, usually redeeming them outside the U.S. Other attacks target hundreds or thousands of accounts at once. In such large-scale compromises, hackers often redeem points for gift cards, which they sell on the black market. We’ve also seen hackers use credit card accounts not only to make fraudulent purchases but also to rack up points, which they then move out of the account. Loyalty managers have kept a low profile with regard to breaches that have occurred, but it’s just a matter of time until there’s a well-publicized breach of a large program — most likely in airline or hotel rewards because members accrue significant value in those programs.
How can customers protect their loyalty rewards?
Treat your loyalty accounts, especially the ones that hold the most value, as you would your bank accounts. Set aside time once a month, at a minimum, to review activity in your loyalty accounts. If you’re earning rewards daily with a program, check it multiple times a week. Don’t use the same passwords for your loyalty programs as you do for your e-mail, bank or credit card accounts. If hackers breach one account, they have a skeleton key to the sensitive data in other accounts. Take advantage of a password manager — software that generates, stores and encrypts passwords.
What should you do if points or miles have been stolen?
Immediately contact the loyalty program’s call center. By and large, programs are generous in refunding points or miles because it’s usually not a fuzzy situation. For instance, if points in the account of a customer who lives in Chicago were redeemed and sent someplace in Russia, it’s pretty clear that it wasn’t the owner accessing the account.
Economic Calendar for the Week of February 27 – March 03
Date
|
ET
|
Economic Report
|
For
|
Estimate
|
Actual
|
Prior
|
Impact
|
Mon. February 27 |
08:30
|
Durable Goods Orders |
Jan
|
NA
|
-0.4%
|
Moderate
|
|
Mon. February 27 |
10:00
|
Pending Home Sales |
Jan
|
NA
|
1.6%
|
Moderate
|
|
Tue. February 28 |
08:30
|
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) |
Q4
|
NA
|
1.9%
|
HIGH
|
|
Tue. February 28 |
08:30
|
GDP Chain Deflator |
Q4
|
NA
|
2.1%
|
HIGH
|
|
Tue. February 28 |
09:45
|
Chicago PMI |
Feb
|
NA
|
50.3
|
HIGH
|
|
Tue. February 28 |
10:00
|
Consumer Confidence |
Feb
|
NA
|
111.8
|
Moderate
|
|
Wed. March 01 |
08:30
|
Personal Consumption Expenditures and Core PCE |
YOY
|
NA
|
1.7%
|
HIGH
|
|
Wed. March 01 |
08:30
|
Personal Consumption Expenditures and Core PCE |
Jan
|
NA
|
0.1%
|
HIGH
|
|
Wed. March 01 |
08:30
|
Personal Spending |
Jan
|
NA
|
0.5%
|
Moderate
|
|
Wed. March 01 |
08:30
|
Personal Income |
Jan
|
NA
|
0.3%
|
Moderate
|
|
Wed. March 01 |
10:00
|
ISM Index |
Feb
|
NA
|
56.0
|
HIGH
|
|
Wed. March 01 |
02:00
|
Beige Book |
Mar
|
NA
|
NA
|
Moderate
|
|
Thu. March 02 |
08:30
|
Jobless Claims (Initial) |
2/25
|
NA
|
NA
|
Moderate
|
|
Fri. March 03 |
10:00
|
ISM Services Index |
Feb
|
NA
|
56.5
|
Moderate
|
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