er of 2022, which gives us an idea of how we closed out the year. The GDP came in at a 2.9% growth rate, which indicates that a soft landing rather than a recession is more likely in the near term.
Today and tomorrow the Federal Reserve Board’s Open Market Committee meets and the Fed will be considering this GDP number, the recent inflation numbers and the December jobs report while deciding whether to raise rates an expected .25% or .50% — or surprise the markets with no increase or a larger increase. As always, the markets will be fixated on the Fed’s announcement after the meeting, though at this point they have sounded like a broken record when talking about taming inflation.
And just to make things even more interesting, we end this week with the first data of 2023. On Friday we will see the jobs report for January. Thus far, the employment sector has shrugged off rate increases and the Fed is not likely to halt their war against inflation until there is a slowing of job and wage growth. Up until now the job market has been screaming like Mad Magazine (for those who are old enough) – What Me Worry?
Dave Hershman is the top author in the mortgage industry. Dave has published seven books, as well as hundreds of articles and is the founder of the OriginationPro Marketing System and Mortgage School. Want to send this commentary and other news in a personalized format to your sphere database or on social media? Sign up for a free trial at www.OriginationPro.com.
