• Wednesday’s mortgage rates should be close to Tuesday’s morning pricing due to a little weakness in bonds late yesterday. The bond market is currently up 4/32 (4.32%) despite unfavorable economic news.

 • Stocks are adding on to yesterday’s huge rally that pushed the Dow higher 1,125 points and the Nasdaq up almost 800 points. Today’s gains are more subdued with the Dow up 316 points and the Nasdaq up 219 points.

 • The first of this morning’s three economic reports was ADP’s March Employment report at 8:15 AM ET. It showed 62,000 new non-governmental payrolls were added to the economy last month. Forecasts had the number around 40,000, signaling this part of the employment sector may have been stronger than many had thought.

 • February’s Retail Sales report was posted at 8:30 AM ET, revealing consumers spent more than expected. Retail level sales rose 0.6% last month, exceeding expectations of 0.4%. A secondary reading that excludes more costly and volatile auto sales also rose more than expected.

 • These sales numbers indicate consumers are still fueling economic growth. They also support the theory that the Fed does not need to cut key short-term interest rates to keep the economy growing. That said, it will be interesting to see how much higher gas prices and other costs related to the Iran war will have affected March spending.

 • March’s manufacturing index from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) came at 10:00 AM ET. It was announced at 52.7, up slightly from February’s 52.4. The increase means surveyed manufacturing executives felt better about business conditions last month than they did in February.

: • Tomorrow’s only relevant data will be last week’s unemployment update at 8:30 AM ET. It is expected to reveal 213,000 new claims for jobless benefits were filed during the week. This would be an increase from the previous week’s 210,000 to hint the employment sector softened a bit. Good news for mortgage rates would be a sizable increase in new claims.

 • 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.