Retail Sales
There is nothing of importance being released today. The rest of the week brings us five pieces of economic data that are relevant to mortgage rates. Only one of them is considered to be highly important though. That will come tomorrow with the release of September's Retail Sales report at 8:30 AM ET. This highly important data measures consumer level sales and is very important to the markets because consumer spending makes up over two-thirds of the U.S. economy. If consumer level spending is strong, overall economic growth is likely to be stronger, making bonds less attractive to investors. If we see weaker than expected readings in this report, the bond market should respond favorably and mortgage rates will probably improve. Current forecasts are calling for a 0.3% increase in sales. Good news for the bond market and mortgage pricing would be a much smaller increase.