Friday’s bond market has opened well in positive territory following much softer than expected employment data. Stocks are rallying with the Dow up 412 points and the Nasdaq up 276 points. The bond market is currently up 15/32 (4.51%), which should improve this morning’s mortgage rates by approximately .500 of a discount point if compared to Thursday’s early pricing. Some lenders may have posted an intraday improvement late yesterday as bonds improved into closing. If you saw rates revised lower during afternoon trading, you will likely see a smaller improvement this morning.

Today’s big news was April’s Employment report that was full of surprises, most of them easily labeled as favorable for mortgage rates. For starters, the U.S. unemployment rate rose from March’s 3.8% to 3.9% in April and the number of new jobs was 175,000 compared to the 240,000 that was expected. And the third headline number, average hourly earnings, rose 0.2% for the month and 3.9% year over year, both falling short of forecasts by 0.1%. There is little to find negative in this report, fueling this morning’s bond rally and noticeable improvement in rates.

Next week doesn’t have any major economic reports to watch. It is a fairly light week in terms of scheduled events that are expected to influence mortgage rates. Now that the FOMC meeting is behind us, the Fed member speaking circuit restarts with several set for next week. If there are no surprises in any of those, it may be the results of the Treasury auctions midweek (10 and 30-year securities) that cause the largest move in rates. Look for details on all of next week’s activities in Sunday evening’s weekly preview.

If I were considering financing/refinancing a home, I would.... Lock if my closing was taking place within 7 days... Lock if my closing was taking place between 8 and 20 days... Lock if my closing was taking place between 21 and 60 days... Float if my closing was taking place over 60 days from now... This is only my opinion of what I would do if I were financing a home. It is only an opinion and cannot be guaranteed to be in the best interest of all/any other borrowers.