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It was a quiet trading session for most of the day in financial markets. Stocks rallied early in the day and lenders offered slightly worse mortgage rates vs. Friday. However stocks sold off late in the day which led to another FLIGHT TO SAFETY! Benchmark Treasury yields closed at new one year lows and MBS prices closed at new record highs. Lenders repriced for the better and mortgage rates improved vs. loan pricing on Friday afternoon. We do have several lenders offering 4.50% as par. To secure a par rate on a conventional mortgage you must have a FICO credit score of 740 or higher, a loan to value at 80% or less and pay all closing costs including an estimated one point loan origination/discount/broker fee. ...

I know many of you are probably sitting on a few loans trying to decide if you should float into the 15 day window in hopes of another rally and better execution on a shorter commit. period or lock up what you got now. In these scenarios, when the market has set itself up to be able to trade in any direction it wishes, we should take a look back and re-evaluate our strategy. The preferred tactic: PLAY THE RANGE UNTIL THE RANGE PLAYS YOU ...

It was a very volatile day in financial markets. Stocks moved lower then higher then lower again. This led benchmark Treasuries on a roller coaster ride. Fortunately stocks finished the day close to the same spot they began it and no lenders repriced for the worse. Reports from fellow mortgage professionals indicate lenders have passed the gains they withheld on Friday, rate sheets have improved. ...

The stock market rally that began yesterday afternoon extended into overseas trading last night and into this morning's trading session. Optimism in equities led investors to sell flight to safety positions in risk free Treasuries which pushed benchmark interest rates higher and led mortgage-backed security prices lower. This forced lenders to offer higher mortgage rates this morning. However, the day did end on a positive note for mortgage rates as the S&P slide from the highs of the day and closed in the red. The late day selloff helped MBS rally off their price lows all the way back to their high of the day. While no lenders repriced for the better, we avoided reprices for the worse. I would like to say the stock sell off set us up for a mortgage rate rally tomorrow, but that would be guess work in this volatile environment. ...

Mortgage rates capped off a great week in sour fashion last Friday. After four days of stock selling induced rate rallying, lenders were finally forced to reprice for the worse on Friday. While mortgage rates did rise more than they have on average, the best 30 year conventional fixed loan rate was still seen near the best levels of the year. The week ahead offers and entire menu of mortgage rate influential events including two gauges of consumer spending and sentiment, three Treasury debt auctions, and a full foursome of housing releases. On top of that we will contend with investor sentiment surrounding the ongoing European debt crisis (contagion), hopefully the Federal Reserve will use one it's scheduled speech events as an opportunity to calm the concerns in the market ...

The flight to safety continued today as stocks moved lower around the world. This sent benchmark Treasuries to their lowest yields of the year and helped mortgage-backed security prices tick higher. We are seeing the best rate sheets of 2010 today and I continue to favor locking. ...

Mortgage rates looked like they were going to move up today as stocks were indicated to open higher before the lenders published rate sheets. However it wasn't long before stocks lost momentum and a flight to quality led benchmark Treasury yields lower. This helped mortgage-backed security prices rally from early session lows and resulted in multiple lender reprices (one for the better, then one for the worse, then one for the better again). ...

For whatever reason, which fundamental and technical can be offered, stocks sold off today. The S&P was down 2.01% to 1135.80 and the Dow fell 1.50% to 10,621.14. This led to another "flight to safety" rally in Treasuries which led mortgage-backed security prices to new highs of the year. This allowed lenders to improve mortgage rates. We actually saw some lenders offering 4.75% at no points....