Last Updated: 12/26/2007

Wednesday's bond market opened down slightly but has since recovered those losses as stocks moved into negative ground. The stock markets are showing early losses with the Dow down 31 points and the Nasdaq down 7 points. The bond market is currently up 7/32, but I am not expecting to see much of a change in this morning's mortgage rates. There is no relevant economic news scheduled for release today. The first piece of data released this week will be will be posted at 8:30 AM tomorrow when the Commerce Department will give us November's Durable Goods Orders. This data gives us an important measurement of manufacturing sector strength by tracking orders for big-ticket items or products that are expected to last at least three years. Analysts are expecting the report to show an increase in the neighborhood of 2.2%. A smaller increase would indicate that the manufacturing sector did not grow as quickly as many had thought. This would be good news for the bond market and should drive mortgage rates lower. However, a larger than expected jump in orders could fuel a stock rally and lead to mortgage rates moving higher early tomorrow morning.