Last week was roller coaster for mortgage backed securities. After a nice rally on Tuesday and Wednesday which brought the par 30 year fixed rate mortgage back under 5%, by Friday MBS ended up where the week began. We have seen a consistent pattern develop lately where each time rates break the 5% barrier, they only remain there for a short period of time before sentiment shifts to drive mortgage rates higher. Driving this movement is the see sawing of investor sentiment from the green shoots theory of a quick economic recovery to a more MBS friendly path of a slow sluggish long recovery. Market participants believing in the green shoots theory have moved the Dow Jones over the 9000 mark. This has caused fixed income to move lower in price increasing yields and mortgage rates. On Friday, the par 30 year conventional rate had moved back to 5.25% for the best qualified consumers.
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