Market commentary

Economic reports this morning included the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index and the weekly jobless claims data. For October the ISM index slipped to 52.9 from 53.0; expectations were for an increase to 53.5. One positive note in the report was the employment index which jumped to 53.3 from 48.7 the previous month.
Initial jobless claims for the week ending October 29 dropped to 397,000 form 406,000 the previous week. This makes just the third week of the past 29 that claims came in below 400,000. In a separate report unit labor costs fell 2.4% in Q3 as part of a 3.1% gain in productivity. This data reflects businesses are seeking to do more with the employees they have versus hiring new workers. For those of us in the mortgage space this is an obvious conclusion!

Again today the markets have generally ignored the economic data and remain focused on the European financial crisis and the results of the Greek referendum. It seems the EU is resigned that the union may be minus one member in the near future.

U.S. Treasury prices are tumbling this morning pushing the yield on the 10 year note to 2.04% Mortgage prices are worse by .25%.