Inflation in March rose by 8.5% from a year ago, the fastest annual gain since December 1981.  Surging food, energy and shelter costs helped account for the gain.  Real worker earnings fell by another 0.8% during the month as the cost of living outpaced otherwise strong pay gains.

The steep upward climb in mortgage rates still isn’t showing any signs of stopping.  The 30-year fixed mortgage rate mortgage hit 5.06%.  The 15 year mortgage rate is also higher at 4.29%.  Only 24% of consumers believe it’s a good time to buy a home, with similar levels of pessimism expressed by nearly all of the demographic groups surveyed.  Over the past three months, mortgage rates have risen 1.5 percentage points.  The latest rise represents the fastest three-month increase in rates since 1994. 

Ratings agency S&P Global placed Russia under a “selected default’ rating, following the country offering bondholders payments in rubles, not dollars.  Russia attempted to pay in rubles for two dollar-denominated bonds that matured on April 4, which amounted to a “selective default” because investors are unlikely to be able to convert the rubles into dollars equaling the amounts due.  Moscow has a grace period of 30 days from April 4 to make the payments of capital and interest, but S&P said it does not expect it will convert them into dollars given Western sanctions.