Market Commentaries and Updates

Many of the Lenders and Investor I use have started offering “market updates” on the bottom of their rate sheets. Here are some snippets from this morning that might be worth considering:

First, from a large regional lender:

This will be a busy week for economic reports being released. This morning, retail sales in March were reported as being slightly better than economists had forecast. Later in the week we will receive updated reports (PPI & CPI) on how inflation is behaving. Stocks, bonds, and mortgage prices are all trading in a fairly narrow range so far this morning.

Now, from one of the nations largest lenders:

U.S. Treasuries rose after stocks in Europe and Asia fell and as traders speculated a U.S. government report may show retail sales stagnated in March. Two-year yields approached the lowest level since April 1 after Group of Seven finance ministers said the eight-month financial crisis has further to run, helping spur demand for the relative safety of government debt. Yields on benchmark two-year notes declined 4 basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, to 1.71 percent. The market is unchanged to .25 better in discount this morning.

So What?

First off, you can see how mundane much of my job is. Reading too many market commentaries like those I listed above isn’t exactly the most entertaining way to spend your mornings.

As for my take away, there is little to decipher from those messages. First, it is too early in the week to be able to make projections. Second, the yields have changed so slightly that there is really nothing reliable right now to use as indicators.

As of this afternoon the bonds are down, but the yields are slim enough that there is no reason to expect much to happen for the next 24 hours or so.