Today's News A Mixed Bag O' Nuts

Free for all today; pick one and run with it!

May new home sales dropped .6 percent (sales prices up from April though)
Durable Goods orders rise 1.8% in May (vs. expected decline of .6%)
Mortgage Applications RISE 6.6% for the week ending 6/19/9
(My fave:) Fed mulls tweaks to economic revival programs
Energy prices drop as gasoline supplies surge

Here's the deal--we are seeing a lot of positive things out there. Yes, rates are up a bit and inflation is still a threat. The Fed has to walk a razor's edge in terms of encouraging our economy but not ignoring the fact that inflation could absolutely kill our recovery. The Fed continues to auction bonds and there is a fear that demand may fall due to lower yields. If you raise yields, you will more or less raise long-term financing rates as the two are closely tied. So again, I push you to purchase or refi NOW and don't be greedy about that extra .25 point as you may face something much worse in the near future.

With that being said, the economy should begin to emerge out of our recession in the Fall, but (this is a big but) unemployment will continue to climb well into 2010. Economist Lynn Reaser (VP of National Association for Business Economics) was quoted saying "The Fed is sending the message that the economy is making progress toward a path of recovery, that the credit markets appear to be healing and inflation is not going to be a problem." I hope she's right (and other economists' prediction that we could see improvement in the July-Sept quarter). Hang in there!