• Friday’s mortgage rates should be lower by approximately .250 of a discount point. If you saw a slight improvement late yesterday, you will likely see a smaller move this morning than those who didn’t get a revision. The bond market is currently up 6/32 (4.16%).

• Stocks are also showing gains, pushing the Dow up 34 points and the Nasdaq up 162 points.

• Today’s big news was the release of November’s Employment report that showed 227,000 new jobs were added to the economy. Analysts were expecting to see 200,000 new payrolls, but feared a larger upward revision to October’s number was possible. This morning’s release did show a change from up 12,000 to up 36,000 for October, still well short of predictions before that month’s data was released last month.

• It also revealed the unemployment rate inched from October’s 4.1% to 4.2% last month, as expected. The slightly higher than expected payroll number is offset by the favorable increase in the unemployment rate.

• What makes it surprising that we didn’t see a negative reaction in the bond market was the earnings data within the report. November’s earnings rose 0.4%, exceeding forecasts of 0.3%. Furthermore, they rose 4.0% annually when traders were expected to see 3.9%. Stronger earnings are an inflation red flag because rising wages often fuels inflation throughout the broader economy.

• This morning’s second economic release also gave us results that should be considered bad news for rates. The University of Michigan announced their initial December Index of Consumer Sentiment stood at 74.0. The increase from November’s 71.8 means surveyed consumers feel better about their own financial and employment situations than was thought and are more likely to spend. It was expected to rise from November, but only to 73.0.

• Next week doesn’t bring us a large number of events that are expected to influence mortgage rates, but does have a couple of highly important inflation readings in addition to two Treasury auctions that may come into play during afternoon trading.

• The week starts light with nothing of importance set for Monday.

• We should see the most movement in rates midweek.

• Look for details on all of next week’s activities in Sunday evening’s weekly preview.

• 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.