Mortgage Rates Nearly Unchanged Despite Early Drama

After starting the week with a sharp move higher, mortgage rates managed to avoid losing much ground yesterday.  This was only achieved with a recovery in the bond market that erased early morning losses (rates are based on bonds and when bonds improve, lenders can update mortgage rates during the day). Today was a strikingly similar pattern.  Bonds had a rough morning thanks to the first few economic reports of the day.  Once again, there was a rate-friendly reversal led by the day's most important economic report at 10am.  In the current case, gains were also facilitated by friendly comments from Fed Chair Powell during a speech early in the afternoon. Even before the bond market reversal, lenders had only increased rates modestly.  After the reversal, many lenders were again able to offer mid-day improvements that brought the average back within a hair of yesterday's latest levels. From here, Thursday's economic calendar is less interesting, but Friday's jobs report is the biggest potential source of volatility in several weeks.