by Lisa Wells

National Market News:

This week the Treasury will auction $84 Billion in new debt supply, starting today at 1pm, with $10 Billion in 10-Year TIP today. If the auction doesn’t attract an appetite for the supply being offered, the Treasury would have to raise the yields on the Notes to attract buyers. And if that plays out, there would be some selling pressure on the entire Bond market, much like we saw a couple of weeks ago after poor auction results.

Also stirring the rumor mill is that St. Louis Fed President James “Raging” Bullard, stated at a conference in Shanghai, that the Fed should keep the Mortgage Backed Securities Purchase Program open beyond the end of March expiration. He went on to say that there is some interest in among other Fed Members to extend the program and that the Fed will be discussing the issue at a meeting later this month. It would be great to hear clear comments from Bernanke only because these statements appear to be the opposite of what the Fed had officially stated at each of the last two meetings-where they clearly stated the program would end. The worse case would be to have these rumors and headlines continue to confuse the market, build hope, but then have nothing materialize. This would cause a great deal of borrowers missing the great opportunity they CURRENTLY have.