"NOT ONLY CAN WATER FLOAT A BOAT - IT CAN SINK IT ALSO."

"NOT ONLY CAN WATER FLOAT A BOAT - IT CAN SINK IT ALSO." Wise words, but you don’t need to know that Chinese proverb to know that a knife can cut both ways. The same is true with the strong ties between the Chinese and US economies. For example, news came out last week that Chinese factories stepped up production in August, which helped ease concerns of a double-dip recession in US and, as a result, helped move Stocks higher earlier in the week. But additional news regarding China is also impacting the Bond market - and could impact home loan rates in the future, depending on how the events unfold.

Here’s what’s happening. There have been numerous accusations that China has kept their currency artificially low, in an effort to fuel their exports. Some American businesses remark that this is an unfair competitive advantage, and call for tariffs to be levied against Chinese goods. It would appear that a stronger Chinese Yuan would help to resolve this problem... but remember there can be some nasty unintended consequences, due to the relationship between Chinese currency and our Bond prices. 

The way that the Chinese keep their currency weak against the Dollar is by buying massive amounts of our Bonds, including Mortgage Backed Securities. And their heavy buying has helped keep home loan rates low. So strengthening the Yuan would require fewer purchases of our Bonds and Mortgage Backed Securities - and that would be negative for home loan rates. 

To paraphrase the Chinese proverb above, the value of the Chinese Yuan may help determine whether Bonds sink or swim in the near future. That makes this a complicated situation... but you can count on me to continue to monitor it closely.

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The Chinese Yuan May Help Bonds Sink or Swim

Bonds saw a nice rally earlier last week, due to speculation about the Fed making additional purchases of Bonds in the future. Last week, Goldman Sachs said the Fed may announce another $1 Trillion asset purchase at the November meeting. And while this is just speculation, many Bond traders bid prices higher on the chatter. Adding fuel to this story was an article in the Wall Street Journal, suggesting the same thing. On the other side of the debate, however, is Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, who stated that the US is far from needing more Bond purchasing by the Fed. 

In other economic news, the Labor Department reported the inflation measuring Consumer Price Index (CPI) for August at 0.3%. That reading was just slightly above the 0.2% that was expected, but it was still a relatively tame reading. When stripping out volatile food and fuel, Core CPI was flat at 0.0%. This rather benign read on inflation allowed traders to breathe a sigh of relief and push Bonds higher. 

Prior to receiving the news, many traders were worried the CPI reading would be higher than expected. That’s because the Producer Price Index (PPI) was reported the day before and showed wholesale inflation rose by 0.4% in August. That was above the 0.3% expected and the biggest gain in 5 months! Remember, inflation is the archenemy of Bonds and home loan rates, so any indication that inflation is increasing could cause home loan rates to worsen.