Mortgage rates are priced modestly worse than they were on Monday but for the most part rates are basically unchanged. Rates have basically traded sideways this week in anticipation of tomorrow’s all-important jobs report.
Current expectations call for ~230,000 new jobs to be announced in the report. A number that comes in at 230,000 or higher will likely pressure mortgage rates higher and vice versa. This report is very hard to predict.
In other news, the European Central Bank, Europe’s equivalent of the Federal Reserve, announced earlier this morning that they would not add any additional monetary stimulus at this time. Instead, they will reassess the need for stimulus in early 2015. Stocks turned negative on the news which bodes well for mortgage rates in the near term.
From a technical perspective mortgage-backed bonds are trading above a couple layers of support so even if tomorrow’s jobs report we’re strong we may catch a break. I am going to recommend cautiously floating BUT I want to emphasize that this is a risk.
Current Outlook: cautiously floating