Updated on March 22, 2023 10:06:42 AM EDT

Yesterday’s 20-year Treasury Bond auction was not overly impressive. The benchmarks showed a below average demand from investors compared to other recent sales. Bonds had an initial knee-jerk negative reaction once the results were posted at 1:00 PM ET, but that was short-lived. The auction actually had little influence on the day’s trading and mortgage pricing.

There is no relevant economic data set for release today. We do have an afternoon of Fed events that are expected to cause noticeable volatility in the markets and possibly mortgage rates. The FOMC meeting will adjourn at 2:00 PM ET. There is much debate about what the Fed will do at this meeting. There was a strong consensus that the Fed would make another rate hike until the recent bank crisis came to light. Now, some analysts feel the Fed needs to take a pause to make sure the crisis is not spreading further since their previous rate hikes are being blamed as a contributing factor to the bank failures. There is no doubt that this topic will be addressed in the post-meeting statement or press conference.

Along with the adjournment and post-meeting announcement at 2:00 PM ET, we will also get the Feds updated economic projections. The press conference with Chairman Powell will start at 2:30 PM. It is likely going to be a pretty active afternoon in the financial and mortgage markets tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning has two minor economic releases scheduled (New Home Sales and weekly unemployment figures). They will be addressed in this afternoon’s update that will be posted once the markets have an opportunity to react to the FOMC events.

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