MARKET NEWS

Wednesday's bond market has opened in positive territory again due to early stock weakness. The stock markets are posting noticeable losses with the Dow down 69 points and the Nasdaq down 5 points. The bond market is currently up 5/32, which should improve this morning's mortgage rates by approximately .125 - .250 of a discount point.

This morning's highly important economic report failed to give us any significant surprises. The Labor Department reported early this morning that October's Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell 0.1% while the core data reading rose 0.1%. The overall reading was slightly lower than forecasts, but the more important core reading matched expectations. This means that inflationary pressures at the consumer level of the economy remained subdued last month. This is good news for the bond market and mortgage rates.

The second report of the morning was October's Industrial Production data that showed a 0.7% increase in output at U.S. factories, mines and utilities. That was higher than the 0.4% that was expected, meaning manufacturers were busier than many had thought. This makes the data negative for bonds and mortgage rates, but since it is considered to be only moderately important to the markets, its impact on today's mortgage pricing has been minimal.

Tomorrow has two minor pieces of economic data scheduled for release. October's Housing Starts comes at 8:30 AM ET. This data gives us an indication of housing sector strength, but usually does not have a noticeable impact on mortgage rates. I don't expect this month's version to be any different unless it varies greatly from analysts' forecasts. It is expected to show a sizable decline in starts of new homes.

Also at 8:30 AM tomorrow, the Labor Department will post last week's unemployment figures. They are expected to say that 398,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last week. That would be an increase from the previous week, indicating a weakening employment sector. But as with the housing data, it will likely take a sizable surprise for mortgage rates to have a noticeable reaction to the news.