Weekly Info 01/20/2012

Mortgage interest rates increased slightly this past week as economic data was generally either better than expected or in line with expectations. Economic reports stronger than expected included the New York Empire State Manufacturing Index, the NAHB housing market index, and weekly jobless claims. Weekly jobless claims fell by 50k on expectations that they would fall by 16k. Reports in line with expectations included December Industrial Production, December Capacity Utilization, December Building Permits, and December Existing Home Sales. Inflation data was also in line with expectations. The December Consumer Price Index was up 3.0% year over year and excluding the food and energy components, core CPI was up 2.2% year over year. Also of note, borrowing costs in Italy and Spain were better than expected which put pressure on Treasury yields.