At the time I am writing this, mortgage interest rates are less than 1/8th lower than they were last Friday.

Most of the week interest rates were on the climb mainly due to stronger than expected economic reports. Data is starting to show that US economy is recovering and that will always be bad news for rates. The reason this is bad news for rates is that low rats is seen as a toll to stimulate the economy and make it grow. When the economy is showing sign of growing there is less need for low rates to stimulate it.

Today there was a reversal in trends and the mortgage rates took back what they lost during the week and then some. The reason for this reversal was due to the unemployment report that came out today. Even though the job numbers were strong the unemployment rate was higher than expected at 7.9%. Also January payroll came in about 10% under estimates. Employment figures are considered a strong indicator on how the economy is doing, so it tends to have a big impact on rates. With the economy not doing as well as expected this signaled to investors that more stimulus might be needed and rates fell.