Despite key labor market data and a highly anticipated Fed meeting, it was unexpected news about the trade negotiations which had the greatest influence on mortgage rates this week. Increased trade tensions are positive for rates, and they ended at the lowest levels in years.

Thursday, President Trump announced that the U.S. will impose additional tariffs of 10% on $300 billion of goods imported from China beginning on September 1. Trump said that the action will be taken …

Rising expectations for looser global monetary policy outweighed stronger than expected major U.S. economic data this week, and mortgage rates ended a little lower.

Early in the week, comments from European Central Bank (ECB) officials suggested that there may be a rate cut soon to help stimulate economic activity. Then the U.S. Fed’s Williams made an unexpectedly dovish speech on Thursday in which he appeared to lay out the reasoning for a rate cut at the next …

News on the trade negotiations, comments from central bankers, and the economic data caused some volatility this week. The lasting impact of these events was relatively minor, however, and mortgage rates ended slightly lower.

There have been few new developments in the trade talks between the U.S. and China in recent weeks. Investors have been waiting for the G20 summit this weekend to see how much progress the two sides have made. According to President Trump, he and …

Central banks dominated the movement in mortgage rates in a positive way this week. Stronger than expected economic data and trade news had much less impact, and mortgage rates ended at the lowest levels in more than two years.

Monday, the European Central Bank (ECB) unexpectedly indicated that it might provide additional stimulus measures as soon as next month, which caused a decline in global bond yields, including U.S. mortgage rates. It was unusual to see news of this …

Increased trade tensions between the U.S. and China were modestly positive for mortgage rates and negative for stocks this week, while the economic data and the Fed minutes had little impact. As a result, rates declined a bit and ended at the lowest levels in over a year.

The U.S. and China appeared to take a couple of steps backward in the trade negotiations this week, and this increased the likelihood that both countries will impose additional tariffs and other penalties …

This week was packed with major economic news highlighted by Wednesday’s Fed meeting and Friday’s Employment report. The result was a lot of volatility, but the various influences were offsetting, and mortgage rates ended the week nearly unchanged.

As expected, the Fed made no change to the federal funds rate. The statement released after the meeting noted “solid” gains in recent economic activity and job gains, but it also explicitly acknowledged …