Friday's bond market has opened sharply lower, giving back much of its gains from the past two days, however by this afternoon the bond market recoverd, currently it is up 9/32. The stock markets are showing gains but no major rebound from yesterday's beating. The Dow is currently up 35 points after falling 444 points yesterday while the Nasdaq has gained 8 points.

Today's losses effectively erase yesterday's rally that pushed yields on the major Treasury bonds and Notes to their lowest levels since 1962. As is often the case, the funds will move out of bonds just as quickly, if not faster as they flowed in. The result usually is a spike in mortgage pricing as investors move away from the safety appeal that led to funds being moved into bonds earlier this week.

There is no relevant economic data scheduled for release today. I would not be surprised to see further volatility in the stock and bond markets as the day progresses. This may affect mortgage rates this afternoon if bonds recover some of their losses or fall much further from their current levels.

Next week is pretty busy in terms of economic releases scheduled to be posted but also is a holiday shortened week. Monday brings us the release of October's Existing Home Sales data that will give us a measurement of housing sector strength. It is expected to show a decline in home resales last month..

                   Mel