Market Commentary

Updated on May 17, 2024 10:04:05 AM EDT

April’s Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) report was posted at 10:00 AM ET this morning. It showed a 0.6% decline, meaning the indicators are predicting moderately weaker economic activity over the next few months. Since analysts were expecting to see a 0.3% decline, we can consider this to be good news for bonds and mortgage rates. However, this report doesn’t carry a high level of importance in the markets, so the news was not able to erase the overnight weakness in bonds.

Next week has a small number of economic reports scheduled for release starting midweek. The majority of them are housing related and aren’t expected to cause a strong reaction in the markets. We will also get the minutes from the April 31-May 1 FOMC meeting Wednesday afternoon. Furthermore, there are also quite a few Fed-member speaking appearances taking place, including a couple that have very sensitive topics related to the outlook of our economy. While there is no data set for Monday, one of those Fed speeches is scheduled for late morning. Fed Chairman Powell is giving a commencement speech Sunday, but we shouldn’t be too worried about it affecting Monday’s trading. Look for details on all of next week’s activities in Sunday evening’s weekly preview.