Goeiendag and welcome to the Metz Market Minute for the Chrisman Commentary.
Oil is King: Oil and energy reclaimed their thrones this week, as the Iran situationship evolved several times and caused oil to spike over $100 a barrel again. Rates bumped up yet again, and caused mortgage applications to fall 4%.
Mucho Jobs Data: Cinco de Mayo brought more jobs data than you can shake a pinata stick at. Visit the Calendar for the full read, but the overall picture is a mixed bag that showed unemployment steady and a relatively stable job market. We may not be creating much in the way of jobs, outside of healthcare, but we're not slashing them either.
Stagflationary Commentary: An ugly word, but when it fits... the ISM Services PMI isn't a sexy report, but this week it showed new sales are down and all 18 of 18 industries showing price increases. The commentary confirmed that even if the Iran situation ends tomorrow, we're still likely to see several months of continued price increases as the global supply chain shockwaves propagate through the system. So prices up, production flat or down...
Constructive Feedback: New home sales are up and construction tripled the expectations, with residential leading the way. It reinforced the trend that builders may not be confident about the future, but they're certainly doing everything they can to finish building up what they have right now. More builders are slashing home prices to move current inventory.
UAD: Fannie released some more updates, and we continue to see more vendors and lenders preparing for the November UAD release. There are some serious worries within the industry that a number of aged appraisers will use this opportunity to retire.
Sources
2.) MBA Applications
6.) Payroll Numbers