A mixture of housing and economic data as we end this snowy and ice covered week here in the Triangle.

The weekly jobless claims number from Thursday came in at 330,000 for the week ending January 19th. The 5,000 claim decrease puts the weekly number at a five year low. The question here is are we experiencing an improving labor market or is this drop attributed to seasonal data influences? We will have a better feel for the labor markets in the weeks to come.

New Home Sales dropped by 7.3% in December giving the markets reason to pause as they digest the less than stellar housing data. While the percentage drop was greater than most economists were expecting for December, many feel as though this is only a temporary departure from what has been a consistent growth trajectory in housing sales.

Mortgage Rates had significant upward movement on Friday thanks to some better than expected comments and news out of Europe. The 10 Year Treasury Yield moved from 1.81 on Thursday to a close of 1.95 on Friday afternoon. This was the most significant one-day movement for mortgage rates that we’ve seen in quite some time. Next week’s FOMC meeting could provide some additional volatility for rates depending on the rhetoric we receive.