The markets are closed today for Easter, but at the time I am writing this, mortgage interest rates are less than 1/8th of a percent lower than they were last Friday.

The Euro zone continued to shake up the markets this week. During the last weekend Cyprus was able to secure a bail out by raiding banks accounts with balances over 100k from the 2 banks that were in trouble. Most of the large account holders were Russian nationals that used Cyprus as a tax haven. The banks opened up yesterday after a 2 week bank freeze. The banks are open but there is a 300 Euro a day withdrawal limit to prevent a bank rush.

Even though it seems that the Cyprus Bank crisis has been avoided for now investors fear that similar problems are brewing in Spain, Portugal, and Italy which has sent those countries bonds tumbling. With money flowing out of risky government bonds it is going into "safe" investment such as US bonds causing US interest rates to fall.

There has been much negative news over in Europe, but the US stock market continues to set new highs. Many people are calling for a pull back since the stock market seems overbought, but every time it starts selling off it quickly rebounds. This week we saw a slight dip in rates, but unless we start seeing enough negative economic news here in the US to slow down the stock market I think the long term outlook for rates is still higher.