• Thursday’s mortgage rates should be lower by approximately .250 of a discount point. The bond market is currently up 7/32 (4.75%).

 • Stocks are showing early strength with the Dow up 283 points and the Nasdaq up 177 points.

 • Yesterday afternoon’s release of the Fed Beige Book showed no major surprises. Business contacts in 10 of the Fed’s 12 regions reported slight to moderate economic growth with the others saying activity was unchanged during the early July to mid-August period.  Consumer spending and manufacturing activity increased slightly across most districts while employment remained stable.

 • The Beige Book also showed there is still notable concern about geopolitical events and elevated prices, particularly energy costs, despite keeping a generally positive outlook towards future activity.

 • There was a bit of volatility in bonds during late afternoon trading yesterday but it wasn’t due to what was in the Beige Book.

 • Last week’s unemployment figures were posted at 8:30 AM ET, revealing 206,000 new claims for jobless benefits were filed last week. This was a small increase from the previous week’s revised 204,000 initial filings, but in line with expectations.

 • Also posted early this morning were revised 2nd Quarter Productivity numbers. The first headline reading showed there was no change to the initial estimate of worker productivity growing at a 1.4% annual pace. A secondary reading that tracks labor costs was revised slightly lower from last month’s preliminary reading (from 1.3% to 1.2%).

 • The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) gave us this morning’s third economic release. They announced at 10:00 AM ET that their non-manufacturing index (aka service index) stood at 55.4 last month. This was higher than the 54.4 that was expected and an increase from July’s 54.1. The increase means more surveyed service sector executives felt business improved last month than did in July.

 • This week’s calendar comes to a close with the release of the almighty monthly Employment report at 8:30 AM ET tomorrow. It will give us details on the employment sector during August, including the U.S. unemployment rate, number of new jobs added or lost and average hourly earnings for the month.

 • Analysts are expecting to see that the unemployment rate inched up from July's 4.1% to 4.2% and that 56,000 jobs were added during the month. The average earnings reading is forecasted to have risen 0.3% from July.

 • Weaker than expected readings would be very good news for the bond market and mortgage rates. A stronger than predicted employment sector would make it easier for the Fed to raise key short-term interest rates at an upcoming FOMC meeting and would likely lead to a noticeable increase in mortgage rates tomorrow.

 • Visit our Daily Commentary page on our site for detailed explanations on current news that is relevant to mortgage rates.

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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.