It’s a rather lackluster day as all eyes await the FOMC policy statement.  The Nasdaq was higher, but now all the major indices are in the red, although slightly. Yields continue to decline with the benchmark 10-year trading around 1.48% as demand for Treasury’s increases.  Let’s see what happens after Powell speaks.

Real Estate and Health Care are the best performers, while Communication Services and Financials are the laggards.

Despite Energy being relatively flat, prices continue to soar and are trading near the highest level since October of 2018 at $72.30 per barrel.  Oil is up more than 20% from April till now.  U.S. crude oil inventory fell by 8.355 million barrels for the week ending June 11, which marked the 4^th straight week of declines.  OPEC+ nations have plan to stick to their agreement to slowly reduce the supply curbs into July. 

The housing market is being pressured by shortages in supply and materials coupled with increased cost.  While Mortgage applications increased 4.2% from the prior week according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA), they had been down for 3 consecutive weeks, and year over year are down. Refinances represented 61.7% of the total applications as interest rates have pulled back and the 30-year at 3.11%, the lowest since May.

• Refinance Index +5.5% from prior week but 22% lower than prior year period
• Purchase Index +11% from previous week but 17% year over year.