Monday’s bond market has opened in negative territory, due partly to early strength in stocks. The major stock indexes are starting the week with solid gains, pushing the Dow higher by 182 points and the Nasdaq up 37 points. The bond market is currently down 10/32 (2.02%), which should push this morning’s mortgage rates higher by approximately .250 of a discount point if comparing to Friday’s morning pricing. A good portion of that increase is a result of weakness in bonds late Friday, so if your lender did make an upward revision Friday afternoon, you likely will see less of an increase this morning. There is nothing of relevance set for release today or tomorrow. In fact, this week has little in terms of scheduled economic reports that are likely to affect mortgage rates. There are no monthly or quarterly reports set for release that are worth watching. We do have a couple of events that certainly can cause mortgage rates to move mid-week, but none of them are considered highly important or expected to be a market mover. For the most part, we only have a couple of Treasury auctions, the minutes from the most recent FOMC meeting and last week’s unemployment numbers to be concerned about. I suspect stocks will drive bond trading and mortgage rates movement several days this week, so we will be focusing on which direction the major indexes are heading for mortgage pricing guidance. Overall, I see Thursday as the key day of the week with an auction, weekly unemployment numbers and the FOMC minutes all taking place. We still may see some movement in rates from day to day but unless something unexpected happens in the geopolitical arena or stock movement, any move will likely be minor.