Last Updated: 01/02/2008

Wednesday's bond market has opened up sharply after this morning's economic news showed much weaker than expected results. The stock markets have reacted negatively to the new with the Dow down 150 points and the Nasdaq down 36 points. The bond market is currently up 28/32, which should improve this morning's mortgage rates by approximately .250. Today's big news came from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) who reported that their manufacturing index fell to 47.7 last month. This was much weaker than expected and indicates that the manufacturing sector may be slowing. The index is created by surveying manufacturing executives about business conditions during the month. The sub 50 reading means that more surveyed executives felt business worsened than those who said it improved, which was the lowest reading since April 2003 This is great news for bonds and mortgage rates as it points towards a possible recession in the economy.