Locking for short term transactions
Initial Jobless Claims for last week came in lower at 339,000 versus the estimate of 351,000. The news is better than expected, but hardly a consistent reason to push stocks higher. Especially given the volatile week to week fluctuation. Nevertheless, stocks are pushing higher with the Dow up 75 points and the S&P 500 up 10 points to almost 1590. mortgage bonds are flat, but have been stable for about 2 weeks now. This could be a good sign for rates, as the price momentum for bonds since early March was a bit too steep to maintain. Earnings season still has a few weeks to go, so stocks look to be targeting all-time highs, possibly putting a cap on bonds. We will suggest locking in on short term transactions.