Thursday, June 4, 2009

Quick Notes for the Day - June 4

Fed Buys Treasurys - The Federal Reserve Bank bought $7.494 billion in Treasurys maturing between 2011 and 2012 on Thursday, the second operation this week and the latest in the central bank's attempts to keep a lid on borrowing costs and spur economic activity. Dealers offered $36.628 billion to be purchased. The last three times the Fed bought from this maturity range, it purchased about $7.3 billion.

Continuing Claims Fall, Productivity Rises - After reaching new weekly record highs since January, the number of continuing claims for state unemployment benefits has started to decline. The Labor Department reported a decrease of 15,000 to 6.74 million in the week ended May 23. First-time applications for benefits fell 4,000 to 621,000 in the week ended May 30, reaching the lowest level since early May. Additionally, the Labor Department report that productivity rose 1.6% in the first quarter as U.S. firms cut their workforces, outpacing the drop in output. An earlier estimate by the Labor Department had been for a 0.8% advance.

30 Year Mortgage Rates Jump - The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.29% for the week ending June 4, up from last week's 4.91% average. The mortgage averaged 6.09% a year ago.

Foreign Banks Keep Rates Unchanged - The Bank of England (BOE), Bank of Canada (BOC), and the European Central Bank (ECB) each decided to keep interest rates unchanged.

No comments: