Mortgage Rates Tip-Toe Around Headline News and Events

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Mortgage rates greatly benefited from headline news yesterday. Around mid-morning we learned that Standard and Poor's had cut Greece's government debt rating all the way down to junk. That is as low as ratings go! Stocks, which have rallied for eight consecutive weeks, sold off sharply on the news. This was a positive for mortgage rates because stock selling led to a "flight to safety" rally in the bond market which pushed benchmark Treasury yields lower and mortgage-backed security prices higher. Gains in the secondary market were large enough to allow lenders to reprice mortgage rate sheets for the better.

Mortgage Rates Tip-Toe Around Headline News and Events

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