Weekend Commentary

Gold: Gold futures climbed Thursday, closing above $475 an ounce for the first time since Oct. 17. This is 11.24% gain from the level of$426.9 on May 11 when we advised our readers to accumulate Gold.

Crude Oil & ...: Yesterday evening, the crude for December delivery closed up 43 cents at $61.09 a barrel in New York. November heating oil fell 0.22 cent to finish at $1.8539 a gallon, while November unleaded gasoline added 0.81 cent to end at $1.5926 a gallon. November natural gas closed at $13.832 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 20.8 cents, or 1.5% on news from the Energy Department that Natural-gas in storage rose by 77 billion cubic feet for the week ended Oct. 21.

Housing: According to a report from the Commerce Department, sales of new homes in the United States increased 2.1% in September -- a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.222 million after an 11.6% slump in August.

Refinancing: The weekly data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) says that applications for mortgages to buy homes fell 7.4% and refinancing applications decreased 8.5%. Refinancing accounted for 42.5% of last week's applications, down from a 42.8% share a week earlier.

Mortgage Rates:
The 30-year fixed rate has increased for seven weeks without pause. The average rate paid on a 30-year, fixed loan increased for a seventh straight week, to 6.15% through Oct. 27, up from 6.1% a week earlier. Last year at this time, the 30-year rate averaged 5.64%. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said this week that it looks for moderately faster economic growth and more Fed tightening to push average long-term mortgage rates up to 6.7% by the middle of next year, before flattening through much of 2007

The average for the 15-year fixed loan this week was 5.69%, up from last week's 5.65% and last year's 5.01%.

The one-year Adjustable-Rate Mortgage (ARM) averaged 4.91%, up from last week when it averaged 4.89%. Last year at this time, it was at 3.96%. Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid ARMs averaged 5.63%, up from last week's 5.59%.

[Mortgage-rate information source: Freddie Mac weekly data]