Thursday’s bond market has opened in negative territory, erasing most of yesterday’s late rally. Stocks are mixed with the Dow down 45 points and the Nasdaq up 65 points. The bond market is currently down 4/32 (4.11%), but gains late yesterday should keep this morning’s mortgage rates slightly lower than Wednesday’s early pricing. If you saw an intraday improvement yesterday afternoon, you will likely see a small increase this morning.

This morning’s scheduled release of last week’s unemployment figures and August’s Factory Orders report have been postponed due to the government shutdown. The same goes for tomorrow’s key Employment report for September. The data has been collected for those reports, meaning their release should be fairly quick after the shutdown ends. In the meantime though, the bond market has little to drive trading.

One exception is tomorrow’s release from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) at 10:00 AM ET. Since they are not a governmental agency, we will get their September non-manufacturing index, also known as the services index. It is expected to show a small decline from August's 52.0 reading. Favorable news for bonds and mortgage rates would be a sign of softer sentiment, signaling the service sector may be slowing.

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... Lock 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.