Good Monday am, I hope you had a Merry Christmas (three more trading days for the year),

While bonds aren’t closed for business this week, it wouldn’t much matter if they were–at least not for the average mortgage rate watcher.  That’s not always the case on the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.  Things are a bit different this year due to the pandemic.  We’re waiting for more tradeable info regarding omicron’s impact on the economy.  Once that picture becomes clearer, the assumption is that rates will make a more convincing move toward the summertime lows or the more recent highs.  At the very least, we’d expect a challenge of one of the outer boundaries of the consolidation pattern. Stocks though are a bit different this week, as second tier traders man the desks and fund managers reposition portfolios for month and year end. There is a spate (SAT word) of data this week but nothing I would expect to move markets much. The greater news will be on the virus front and how it impacts the economy (let’s start with 2000 flights cancelled over the weekend for lack of crew members). Will share more on this as it becomes available.

Please remain safe and healthy, enjoy the last bits of 2021, make today great.