Posts from the ‘Monday Morning Mortgage Rate Updates’ Category

February 1, 2016

How the U.S Federal Reserve Surprised Markets Last Week

The U.S. Federal Reserve left its policy rate unchanged last week, as was widely expected, but it also surprised markets by adopting a far more dovish tone about the U.S. economy’s prospects. How quickly circumstances can change. When the Fed raised its policy rate in December, its rate-setting committee had predicted that there would be four more rate hikes in 2016. Now, just a month later, the Fed sounds much more cautious and U.S. fourth-quarter GDP growth just clocked in at a paltry 0.7%. Investors are now betting that the next Fed rate hike won’t be until February 2017 (according to CME Group 30-Day Fed Fund futures prices). The U.S. Fed’s policy statements matter to Canadian mortgage borrowers because our economies are deeply interlinked. That means that while […]