The week ahead is a particularly slow one. The only major releases are the Trade Balance on Wednesday and Retail Sales report on Thursday. Plus, Friday will see February’s first measure of consumer confidence. With little fresh data to anticipate, the fear is that markets will continue on their downward path this week. Since January 19 the Dow has shed 5.6% while the S&P 500 has lost 6.9%. One hour before the opening bell, however, equity markets are looking stable. Dow futures are up 10 points to 10,012 and S&P 500 futures are up 3.08 points to 1,066.

Equity futures are deep in the red this morning after substantial losses yesterday. The culprit continues to be European sovereign debt concerns in Greece, Portugal and Spain, which is sending European and Asian stocks rapidly south. Labor data from the US isn’t helping as jobless claims unexpectedly rose to 480k yesterday. The big questions today are how did January employment perform, and what impact can it have on the markets? Yesterday the Dow fell 268 points, or 2.61%, putting the the industrial index into four-digits for the first time since early November. The S&P 500 performed even worse as it shed 3.1% ― its worst single-day decline in nine months ― effectively erasing three months of gains.

Mortgage rates rose slightly during the past week according to information released today by both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Only the one-year ARM reported by Freddie Mac was down from the previous report.

Because the Employment Situation Report is so influential in the marketplace, it is also a source of great speculation. One source that provides a hint into the number of job losses the government will report on the following Friday is the ADP Employment Report. After today's ADP release, expect to hear whispers of an NFP print around +50,000 jobs. WHY?

I have spent the last few days using the control-f function to locate anything mentioning housing or the mortgage industry. I searched the document for terms like mortgage, mortgage-backed security, housing, community, GSE, government sponsored enterprise, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc, etc. Needless to say, I found a healthy portion of content to discuss.

The MBA reported Tuesday that commercial loan originations had increased during the fourth quarter over both the previous quarter and the same quarter one year earlier.

Equity markets are rallying ahead of key housing market data for December. 90 minutes before the opening bell, Dow futures are up 24 points to 10,161 and S&P 500 futures are trading 2.80 points up to 1,089.10.