Mortgage Rates Relaxing Today

Mortgage rates are sideways thus far today as Geo-political tensions eased over the weekend. The Pentagon commented that there should be more discussions and less hardball talk - somewhat the same sentiment that was expressed in many comments over the weekend. Last week there was a huge increase in fears, although markets were not that unsettled. This morning at10:30AM, the stock market indexes are pointing upward.

The over-riding news this morning in markets is the relaxing of the rhetoric from North Korea and the US. Tensions eased as the idea of a mass war finally is sinking in. There is little North Korea can gain, and the US is not about to make a move unless provoked by a military action from North Korea. Last week Trump escalated his threats - markets and people here are not used to his bombastic rants, the world is not used to it.

Over the weekend Trump, in another ridiculous comment that the US needs a government shutdown. The debt ceiling is approaching in late Sept or early October. We are subjected to this every other year, the US can pay its bills we all know that and the US has never in our history defaulted. Kind of silly in a way that it always goes to the wire; and why traders and markets even care. This time it is the Tea Party flexing their muscle.

The dollar a little stronger this morning, crude oil unchanged, gold down a little after increasing $32.00 last week on safe hedging against all the geo-political chatter.

Technicals remain positive in the near term, however with relaxed angst over Korea and at these historic lows, continued economic improvement and stocks climbing there is little reason to expect rates will decline. The one solid support keeping rates from rising much now is the lack of inflation, as we saw last week both PPI and CPI data were absent of any increase.

Currently, with the fears relaxed from overseas, and since we are at the bottom of the range, locking may not be a bad idea, even if you are closing more than 15 days away.