The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was signed into law Tuesday in Denver, Colorado.  Also Tuesday, stock markets fell near their November 2008 lows. The two moves are related. With each new stimulus; with each potential jumpstart of the economy, Wall Street questions whether the federal push will be enough to make an impact. Traders ended undecided on that issue today, but resolute in something else — that whatever change the stimulus bill will bring, it’s not going to come fast enough to help. The sell-off in equities was a boon to home buyers.  For the first time since early-December, mortgage markets gave a sustained rally, extending gains from the 8:30 AM market open through the 4:00 PM market close. Conforming mortgage rates were down on the day.  Longer-term, though, this pattern won’t likely last.  Not only will the stock market regain its balance and draw dollars back, but, more importantly, the stimulus bill contained verbiage increasing the national debt ceiling […]

Despite a weakening employment outlook for Americans, the economy flashed signs of a rebirth last week.  It wasn’t enough to reverse the recent mortgage rate trend, however. For the fourth week in a row, mortgage rates increased, if only slightly. The biggest story of last week was the revelation that 2.5 million jobs have been lost since Labor Day.  Strangely, this data may lead to two boosts toward a market recovery in the days ahead. Monday, the Senate is expected to vote on an $820 billion stimulus package Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Geithner is expected to outline a bank recovery program Both of these events figure to be heavily influenced by the number of out-of-work Americans and the pressure to restore confidence in the U.S. economy.  We learned last week that Americans have moved from spenders to savers, after all, and in the absence of consumer spending, an economy is hard-pressed to expand. In other words, rising unemployment is putting pressure on Capitol Hill and […]