Thursday’s bond market has opened fairly flat despite weaker than expected economic news. The stock markets are mixed with the Dow up 57 points and the Nasdaq down 12 points. The bond market is currently nearly unchanged form yesterday’s close, therefore we should see little change in this morning’s mortgage rates.

The Conference Board posted its Leadin g Economic Indicators (LEI) late this morning, showing a decline of 0.1%. This means that the index expects to see a slight decline in economic activity over the next few months. This is good news for the bond market, especially since no change from February’s reading was expected. Further good news came in a 0.3% downward revision to February’s reading of a 0.2% drop.

The Labor Department released weekly unemployment claims figures this morning, saying that 303,000 new claims were filed. Analysts were expecting to see 308,000 new claims, so we can consider this news to be negative towards bonds. However, the data usually has little impact on bond trading or mortgage rates.

There is no relevant economic news scheduled for release tomorrow. This should keep bond prices and mortgage rates relatively calm unless we see significant moves in the major stock indexes. We are in the midst of earnings season for stocks, therefore we may see volatility if key earn ings reports miss or beat expectations. Those gains or losses in stock could affect bond trading and possibly mortgage rates.

If I were considering financing/refinancing a home, I would…. Lock if my closing was taking place within 7 days… Lock if my closing was taking place between 8 and 20 days… Float if my closing was taking place between 21 and 60 days… Float if my closing was taking place over 60 days from now… This is only my opinion of what I would do if I were financing a home. It is only an opinion and cannot be guaranteed to be in the best interest of all/any other borrowers.