Surprisingly, New Home Sales rose rose 1.5% last month to an annual nationwide rate of 661K.  The astonishment was not in the fact that more new homes sold than the month before, but rather that analysts anticipated 19K more new homes to have closed last month. It’s hard to please everyone.  Irrespective of the miscalculation, the increase in sales volume is putting additional upward pressure on mortgage rates.

Congruently, the $127B in 2 and 5 Year Treasury Notes are being auctioned off today, and the first round this morning received a “C” rating, also sending rates upward.  We have three more hours to see how the rest of the lots are received.