Friday’s bond market has opened down slightly with little to drive trading and holiday effects still in place. Stocks are starting the new year with gains of 55 points in the Dow and 244 points in the Nasdaq. The bond market is currently down 2/32 (4.17%), which could cause a modest increase in this morning’s mortgage rates compared to Wednesday’s early pricing. The financial and mortgage markets were closed yesterday for the New Year’s Day holiday.

There is nothing of importance scheduled for today. We are seeing some early weakness in bonds, but they come in light trading as some traders are still home for the extended holiday weekend. This simply means we shouldn’t put too much weight into any movement in bonds or minor changes to mortgage rates that may happen today. They will be less reliable than if they came during a fully-staffed trading session.

Next week has much more on its calendar for us to watch than the past couple of weeks. Now that most of the shutdown-delayed data is behind us, we are back on the traditional release schedule for the upcoming economic reports. That takes us to the typical new-month reports, including the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) manufacturing index (first business day), ADP private-sector employment data (first Wednesday) and the governmental Employment report that draws more attention than the others on the first Friday of each month.

Since the data is more current than what we have received over the past month, we should see stronger responses to the reports. This should start Monday when December’s ISM report is posted at 10:00 AM ET. There are other reports that carry less influence than the ISM and Employment reports that are scheduled next week, in addition to a handful of Fed-member speaking engagements also. Look for details on all of next week’s mortgage rate-relevant events in Sunday evening’s weekly preview.

If I were considering financing/refinancing a home, I would.... Lock if my closing was taking place within 7 days... Lock if my closing was taking place between 8 and 20 days... Lock if my closing was taking place between 21 and 60 days... Float if my closing was taking place over 60 days from now... This is only my opinion of what I would do if I were financing a home. It is only an opinion and cannot be guaranteed to be in the best interest of all/any other borrowers.