Economic update for the week ending April 14, 2018

Stocks rebound as fears of trade war lower – Stocks gained about 2% this week after two weeks of drops. It was the sixth straight week that the S&P dropped or gained over 1%. Investors reacted positively as both the U.S. and China seemed to dial back the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the week at 24,306.14, up from last week’s close of 23,932.76. It is down 1.5% year-to-date. The S&P 500 closed the week at 2,656,39, up from 2,604.47 last week. It’s down 0.6% year-to-date. The NASDAQ closed at 7,106.55, up from 6,915.11 last week. It is up 0.6% year-to-date.
Treasury Bond yields slightly higher this week – The 10-year treasury bond closed the week yielding 2.82%, up from 2.77% last week. The 30-year treasury bond yield ended the week at 3.03%, up slightly from 3.01% last week.
Mortgage Rates stable this week – The April 12, 2018 Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Survey reported that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate average was 4.42%, slightly above last week’s 4.40%. The 15-year fixed was 3.87%, unchanged from 3.87% last week. The 5-year ARM was 3.61%, down slightly from 3.62% last week.
Author, 

​Syd Leibovitch