Wednesday’s bond market has opened in positive territory, extending yesterday’s late rally. The stock markets are posting sizable losses with the Dow down 184 points and the Nasdaq down 51 points. The bond market is currently up 10/32, which with yesterday’s afternoon improvements should improve today’s mortgage rates by approximately .250 - .375 of a discount point compared to yesterday’s morning rates.

Today’s only relevant economic data was June’s Trade Balance that was released early this morning. It showed that the U.S. trade deficit stood at $49.9 billion in June. This was a much larger deficit than many had expected, but this data is not considered to be highly important to the bond market. Therefore, its results have had only a very slight impact on this morning’s trading and mortgage rates.

There is no relevant monthly or quarterly economic data scheduled for release tomorrow, but we will get weekly unemployment figures from the Labor Department. They are expected to say that 465,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last week, falling from the previous week’s 479,000 total. Since this data only tracks a single week’s worth of claims, it usually takes a wide variance from forecasts for this report to affect mortgage rates.

Friday brings us the release of three reports that will likely influence mortgage pricing. Two of them are considered to be very important to the financial and mortgage markets. Those two reports, July's Retail Sales and Consumer Price Index, can lead to sizable movement in the markets and mortgage rates. So, expect an active day in the mortgage market Friday.



If I were considering financing/refinancing a home, I would.... Float if my closing was taking place within 7 days... Float if my closing was taking place between 8 and 20 days... Float if my closing was taking place between 21 and 60 days... Float if my closing was taking place over 60 days from now...