Friday’s bond market has opened in negative territory despite favorable economic news. The stock markets are continuing yesterday’s selling with the Dow down 37 points and the Nasdaq down 20 points. The bond market is currently down 5/32, which will likely push this morning’s mortgage rates higher by approximately .125 of a discount.

Today’s first piece of economic data was March’s Goods and Services Trade Balance report. It showed that the U.S. trade deficit dropped to $62 billion in March. This was a sizable drop, especially since analysts were expecting to see an increase from February’s $65.7 billion. However, this data is not considered to be of much direct importance to bonds or mortgage rates.

The second report was May’s preliminary reading to the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment. It showed a reading of 79.0 this month, which was much weaker than the 86.0 that was expected. This indicates that consumers were much less optimistic about their own financial situations than thought. This is considered to be good news for the bond market and mortgage rates. Unfortunately, the news is being ignored during early trading.

There is no relevant economic news scheduled for release Monday, but there are a few important reports due out next week. The important data begins Tuesday with the r elease of April’s Producer Price Index (PPI) and Wednesday’s Consumer Price Index (CPI). These indexes give us very important measurements of inflationary pressures at different stages of the economy and can heavily influence bond trading and mortgage rates.

Look for more details on the week’s events in Sunday evening’s weekly preview.

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.

 

a la mode

(AP) NEW YORK Faced with opposition from conservative groups and some pornography Web sites, the Internet’s key oversight agency voted Wednesday to reject a proposal to create a red-light district on the Internet.

The decision from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers reverses its preliminary approval last June to create a “.xxx” domain name for voluntary use by the adult entertainment industry.

ICANN had postponed making a final decision in August after the U.S. government stepped in just days before a scheduled meeting to underscore objections it had received, an intervention that had led some ICANN critics to question the organization’s independence.

“The board was certainly very conscious of that (the controversy) … but the heart of the decision today was not driven by a political consideration,” ICANN Chief Executive Paul Twomey said in an interview that followed more than an hour of discussion in a closed teleconference meeting.

Twomey said the decision largely came down to whether the creation of “xxx” might put ICANN in a difficult position of having to enforce all of the world’s laws governing pornography, including ones that might require porn sites to use the domain. Speech-related laws, he noted, often conflict with one another.

He said concerns raised by various governments around the world did prompt the company proposing the domain, ICM Registry Inc. of Jupiter, Fla., to make changes in its bid, but the changes did not address all of the questions concerning enforcement.

ICANN’s rejection of “.xxx” in a 9-5 vote ends, for now, a 6-year-old effort by ICM to establish a domain for the porn industry. ICANN first tabled its bid in 2000 out of fear it would be getting into content control.

ICM resubmitted its bid in 2004, this time structuring it with a policy-setting organization to free ICANN of that task. But the language of the proposed contract was vague, Twomey said, and a majority of the board felt that one interpretation could kick the task back to ICANN.

When the board initially voted last year to move forward with “.xxx,” the contract details had yet to be written.

ICM argued the domain would help the $12 billion online porn industry clean up its act. Those using the domain would have to abide by yet-to-be-written rules designed to bar such trickery as spamming and malicious scripts.

Anti-porn advocates, however, countered that sites would be free to keep their current “.com” address, in effect making porn more easily accessible by creating yet another channel to house it.

And they say such a domain name would legitimize adults sites, which 2 in 5 Internet users visit each month, according to tracking by comScore Media Metrix.

Many porn sites also objected, fearing that such a domain would pave the way for governments � the United States or repressive regimes abroad � or even private industry to filter speech that is protected here under the First Amendment.

Democratic Sens. Max Baucus of Montana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas have introduced legislation that would create a mandatory “.xxx.”

The porn industry trade group Free Speech Coalition believes a domain name for kids-friendly sites would be more appropriate.

Twomey said the board took the porn sites’ concerns as a sign ICM did not fully represent the industry, a criteria required in the current round of domains.

Meanwhile, ICANN approved the creation of a domain name designed to help people manage their contact information online.

As envisioned, Internet users could buy a “.tel” name and set up a Web site with their latest digits � home, cell and work phone numbers, home and work e-mail addresses, instant messaging handles and perhaps even a MySpace profile.

The “.tel” domain could appear in use as early as this year.