•  Tuesday’s mortgage rates should be slightly higher than Monday’s early pricing. If you saw an intraday increase in rates before closing yesterday, you should see a small improvement this morning. The bond market is currently up 5/32 (4.41%).

 •  Stocks are showing early gains with the Dow up 237 points and the Nasdaq up 167 points.

 •  The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) gave us the more important of this morning’s economic reports with the release of their non-manufacturing (services) index at 10:00 AM. They announced a reading of 53.6 that was a bit lower than the 53.8 that expected and a decline from March’s 54.0. The decline means fewer surveyed service sector executives felt business improved last month than those who did in March.

 •  Also late this morning was the release of new home sales figures for February and March. The shutdown-delayed reports showed sales of newly constructed homes rose 8.9% and 7.4% respectively, giving us a small sign of strength in the housing sector. Fortunately, newly built homes make up a small portion of all home sales in the U.S., so this report doesn’t carry much influence in the markets or mortgage rates.

 •  The ADP private-sector Employment report is set for release at 8:15 AM ET tomorrow. Analysts are expecting it to show that approximately 84,000 private sector payrolls were added to the economy last month. A smaller number would be good news for tomorrow’s mortgage rates.

 • 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... Float 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.