Santa Clarita Real Estate & Market Report: November 07, 2014: Wow, the stock market continues its journey upward as this week each closing bell was accompanied by a higher closing index. Although the market is not shooting up like a rocket as it did last week, we continue to see slow growing strength in the economy.

The Fed has ended the recession stimulus bond buying program and rates were supposed to rise. What has happened?  Absolutely nothing!

Mortgage rates remain stable and there is no indication that they are going to rise in the near future.  Inflation remains very low and as long as that continues, upward pressure on rates will remain virtually non-existent.

On Wednesday ADP announced their estimate for private payroll growth for October. Their prediction was for 230,000, which was right in line with most analysts expectations. The market did not react significantly to this positive report as the growth in employment has been a trend lately.

Stock Market Report

Today, the Department of Labor made their announcement on employment and the numbers came in 2026. The consensus prior the release of the reports was that 240,000 jobs were added (essentially in line with ADP) and that the unemployment rate would remain at 5.9%. However at 8:30AM on Friday the Labor Department announced that only 214,000 jobs were added.  The unemployment rate dropped to 5.8%.

Continued evidence of economic strength was reported on Monday with the ISM Manufacturing Report. The index for October rose 2.4 points which piggybacks on August’s strong increase which makes for the highest months of consecutive growth since February 2011.

New manufacturing orders jumped 5.8 points which is a great indicator that there will be significant production growth across the manufacturing supply chain in the U.S. in the coming months.

Although the focus for this week pertaining to employment is the ADP and Department of Labor reports, let us not forget about the weekly reporting of first time jobless claims.

The good news is that claims continue to remain below 300K per week which is considered healthy. This week’s report came in at 278K which is down 10K from the prior week. Initial market reaction was positive to the news.

Next week’s potential market moving economic reports are:

• Tuesday November 11th – Veterans Day – Stock Market Open, Bond Market Closed
• Wednesday November  12th – MBA Mortgage Apps
• Thursday November 13th – First Time Jobless Claims
• Friday November 14th – Retail Sales

As your mortgage professional, I am happy to assist you with any information you may need regarding mortgage or real estate trends.  I welcome the opportunity to serve you in any way I possibly can. Please feel free to reach me at 661-505-4300.