Thursday's bond market has opened up slightly after this morning's inflation reading didn't reveal any surprises. The stock markets are showing small gains with the Dow up 7 points and the Nasdaq up 2 points. The bond market is currently up 4/32, which will likely improve this morning's mortgage rates by approximately .125 of a discount point.

The Labor De partment released October's Consumer Price Index (CPI) early this morning, saying that the overall index rose 0.3% while the core data rose 0.2%. These matched forecasts, indicating that inflationary pressures were at expected levels. The lack of a surprise helped ease some inflation fears, but generally speaking the data did not impact bond trading or mortgage rates much.

The Labor Department also said the 339,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last week. This was higher than expected, which can be considered good news for bonds. However, the weekly report usually has little influence eon bonds or mortgage rates because it tracks only a week's worth of claims.

The last report of the week comes tomorrow morning when October's Industrial Production data be posted at 9:15 AM This report gives us a measurement of manufacturing sector strength by tracking output at U.S. factories, mines and utilities. It is expected to reveal a 0.1% increase. St ronger than expected levels of output could mean that the manufacturing sector is gaining momentum. That would be considered bad news for the bond market and mortgage rates.

If I were considering financing/refinancing a home, I would.... Float if my closing was taking place within 7 days... Float if my closing was taking place between 8 and 20 days... Float 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.