Mortgage Rates End Higher Despite Promising Start

Mortgage rates rose 0.04% today to an index value of 7.57% for a top-tier 30yr fixed scenario for the average lender today. That uptick in and of itself isn't especially large, but it's a bit counterintuitive on a day where the hotly anticipated jobs report came in much weaker than expected.  The jobs report has 2 key components: Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) and the unemployment rate. For most of the time any rate watcher can remember, NFP matters way more. The market still reacts to it (which is why bonds initially improved this morning), but unemployment has arguably taken the lead in terms of accurately capturing labor market trends. Even then, today's unemployment rate of 4.2% (up from 4.1% last month) shouldn't have been a problem. The catch was that the unrounded numbers made the