Wednesday's Markets Update (March 29, 2023)

30 Mar 2023 by rate3

On Wednesday, Mr. Barr continued to subliminally indoctrinate readily attentive regulators with his agenda that the Fed will take more care of small banks. Meanwhile, traders, energized by a seemingly stabilizing situation in the banking sector, pushed major indexes slightly higher in pre-market trading: NASDAQ (o: 11855, c: 11926), BTC (o: 28441, c: 28419).

Meanwhile, the fundamentals remain unchanged while inflationary pressure persists. This was confirmed once again by the NAR, which reported that pending home sales increased by 0.8 percent in February to the highest level since August. This followed an 8.1 percent increase in January and exceeded market expectations of a 2.3 percent decrease. Sales rose in the Northeast (6.5 percent), the South (0.7 percent), and the Midwest (0.4 percent), but fell in the West (-2.4 percent).

The NAR representatives noted that with mortgage rates improving (after the Fed guaranteed most mortgages), residential mortgage loans are expected to be more readily available, while getting commercial mortgage loans could become more difficult.