Daily Market Update 3/12/10

Mortgage rates inched higher Friday as February Retail Sales rose 0.3%, exceeding forecast by a wide margin. Mortgage-backed securities (MBS) recovered partially from early losses following disappointing data on Consumer Sentiment, which fell unexpectedly last month. Next week will be busy in terms of new economic data, and may be volatile for MBS markets. Figures on Industrial Production will be released Monday, the Fed will hold an FOMC meeting Tuesday to discuss monetary policy, the Producer Price Index (PPI) comes out on Wednesday, and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Thursday. No other data will be released today.