Market commentary

This morning’s economic data has been overshadowed by the North Korean attack on South Korea, and the subsequent response. U.S. Treasuries are seeing flight to safety bid and stock markets are down sharply.

In today’s economic releases, 3rd quarter GDP was revised higher than expected from 2.0% to 2.5%, however, existing home sales fell 2.2%. The decline in sales is being attributed to overly strict lending standards and unemployment, which makes sense, as interest rates are at half-century lows and home prices have fallen significantly the past two years. New regulations resulting from the Fed and Dodd-Frank Act will only worsen this scenario.

For today, mortgage prices are better by .10% to .20%.