Uncle Sam will complete his planned three-part debt auction today with the sale of $16 billion worth of 30-year bonds. As I write it appears this offering may not draw quite as solid a bid from the global investment community as yesterday's 10-year notes did. Even though Uncle Sam may find it necessary to nudge the yield on these bonds up a bit in order to attract the required capital - the increase, if it occurs, will not likely be dramatic enough to cause mortgage interest rates to move notably higher as well. The number of Americans standing in line to file first-time jobless claims declined by 4,000 to a total of 444,000 during the week ended May 8th. It was the fourth straight decline in this measure of activity in the labor sector. The number of people collecting their second week or more of unemployment benefits edged higher while the number of people participating in the government's Emergency Unemployment Compensation program fell. Until the total number of initial weekly jobless claims falls below 400,000 on a week-over-week basis -- this data will tend to be supportive of relatively steady mortgage interest rates.
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