Last Updated: 12/03/2007

Monday's bond market has opened in positive territory despite slightly stronger than expected economic data. The stock markets are relatively calm with the Dow and Nasdaq both down approximately 2 points. The bond market is currently up 12/32, which will likely improve this morning's mortgage rates by approximately .250 of a discount point. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) kicked off this week's news with the release of their manufacturing index for November. They said it stood at 50.8, which was a slight decline from October's 50.9 but a little stronger than the 50.5 that was expected. This indicates that manufacturer sentiment was slightly stronger than expected. That is considered to be a negative for bonds, but so far ha snot had much of an impact on trading.